Forced shutdown - potential damage and alternatives

[Garydou]

I have Mac Mini and I have encountered times, when EVERYTHING freezes and nothing else has helped than pushing down the power button and just forcing it shut.

1) Does forced shut down damage hard drive?

2) Does forced shut down damage OSx?

3) Does forced shut down weaken Mac enough to cause security damage and allow malicious sides get access?

4) Are there any alternatives to this? Everything's frozen, mouse can't do jack - what should I do? It just sits there, frozen.

5) And, after Forced Shut Down, will running Disk Utility make sure if everything's fine or not?

 

[Kissmyne]

I have Mac Mini and I have encountered times, when EVERYTHING freezes and nothing else has helped than pushing down the power button and just forcing it shut.

1) Does forced shut down damage hard drive?

2) Does forced shut down damage OSx?

3) Does forced shut down weaken Mac enough to cause security damage and allow malicious sides get access?

4) Are there any alternatives to this? Everything's frozen, mouse can't do jack - what should I do? It just sits there, frozen.

5) And, after Forced Shut Down, will running Disk Utility make sure if everything's fine or not?

1) Typically no
2) Typically no, see answer to question 5.
3) NO
4)Force Quit? Does the issue occur in Safe Boot? Have you tried holding Control + Command+ Power
5)This is typically a great idea whenever you have to force the computer to stop, as the most likely scenario is for the filesystem to become corrupted of which Disk Utility will typically resolve.

Ultimately the key thing to look at in this situation is what is actually causing the system lockup situations. Have you had a chance to look at Activity Monitor to see what is locking you up(I run Activity Monitor in the background at all times)?

 

[Garydou]

4)Force Quit? Does the issue occur in Safe Boot? Have you tried holding Control + Command+ Power
5)This is typically a great idea whenever you have to force the computer to stop, as the most likely scenario is for the filesystem to become corrupted of which Disk Utility will typically resolve.

Ultimately the key thing to look at in this situation is what is actually causing the system lockup situations. Have you had a chance to look at Activity Monitor to see what is locking you up(I run Activity Monitor in the background at all times)?

4) The issue has happened very rarely and I have no idea why it even happened. But that I had to use Force Quit those few times made me worried if I did damage and what to do in future.

I didn't honestly knew Control + Command+ Power - thank you telling me! I'll try if (hopefully never!) total freeze happens again. This method is not harmful unlike Force Quit?

5) And if Disk Utility can't resolve it, it will at least tell me so?

Unfortunately I was too green to have Activity Monitor open that time. I'll be doing it from now on. Also, if it freezes totally and nothing, even mouse moves, is there a way to get activity monitor to move to front if it is behind some other app/file?