Quick question about "hard" shutdowns

[parabola]

You know when a computer just locks up all of a sudden and you can't do anything on it, even when hitting CTRL+ALT+DELETE?

Is there any way to avoid a hard shutdown in that situation? I googled hard shutdown and was reading sometimes about a computer "reset" button. I was just wondering, do most computers have reset buttons and if so, where are they located? I have a dell e521 desktop, and i don't see a reset button near the power button in the front, so i was wondering where else it could be (if it had one)...the back?

 

[PurdueRy]

I think the reset button is no better than just holding down the power button

 

[parabola]

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: PurdueRy
I think the reset button is no better than just holding down the power button</end quote></div>

Ah, k.

Found this picture

http://www.v2premier.com/techs...erms/resetbutton.shtml

But my computer does not have that reset button anyways. Was only inquiring because I heard hard shutdowns are really bad for the hard drive

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: parabola
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: PurdueRy
I think the reset button is no better than just holding down the power button</end quote></div>

Ah, k.

Found this picture

http://www.v2premier.com/techs...erms/resetbutton.shtml

But my computer does not have that reset button anyways. Was only inquiring because I heard hard shutdowns are really bad for the hard drive

It's really only somewhat bad for the OS. Anything that was in RAM that needed to be stored will not be. This is often not a big deal, but occasionally can cause problems.