Whats the difference between turning off a surge protector vs pulling out the power cord

[TechBoyJK]

What is the difference between just turning off the surge protector that a server is hooked up to and actually physically pulling the power cord out of the server? I know both hard power downs can damage a hard drive and corrupt the file system, but is there any real difference between the two?

 

[ElFenix]

potential sparking maybe

 

[dkozloski]

When you jerk the power cord out of the outlet you are also disconnecting "safety ground". This would be what you want to do if you're trying to protect the system from a lightning storm otherwise it's bad news.

 

[lucky9]

no