Hard shut down vs. OS shut down/Safely Remove

Question

This is just a basic hardware question I wasn't sure of.

I am not looking for answers like "You should always shut down properly" or "You should always safely remove hard drives". What I'm looking for are what exactly is the difference between doing the proper steps of shutting down and just pulling the plug. I know that shut down makes sure that all writes are finished, stores whatever it needs to to the journal, etc. etc. But when it comes down to actually powering down, is there any difference? Does hard shutdowns eventually cause permanent damage to the harddrive?

Answer 1

During the shut down process, Windows (or any OS) will close files and access to system registry, while parking the little disk arm for the hard disk, neetly at the side. If you just pull the plug, the arm probably won't have the time to park itself, scratching the disk. On top of that, any files/registry open, may be corrupted because the OS won't have warning or time to write to them and close them properly.