QUOTE(haxored @ Mar 28 2007, 04:17 PM) 
Referring to Manual Shutdown #1 (Press and holding the button): This will sometimes result in data corruption, why? Because during the normal shutdown process, Hardrive Read/Write heads are being parked on the SafeZone. Doing this will just leave the head on top of the plate destroying some precious data.
I would say we are talking about this one...
And I would agree with you it is bad, you made a very good point about the hard drives, but these are not the only parts to suffer. Fans can lose life by being instantly shut off and also the main chip doesn't do too good having instant power / usage changes.
Software can get corrupted too, with files being unproperly saved, just cut off, things being accessed...!
Its just not great for the comp - pressing the button once to turn off is fine!
