What is the Difference Between a Hard and Soft PC Reboot?

If you have a computer or at least have used one, you most likely have restarted your computer a couple of times. There are 2 types of rebooting. The hard reboot and the soft reboot. Their difference is quite simple. A hard reboot requires you to shut down the computer completely and unplug your computer from its electric source or outlet. A soft reboot on the other hand is just a simple restart of your computer. If you have Windows, it's as simple as clicking on the restart button then your PC will just restart itself and start Windows again.

However, looking more deeply into these 2 rebooting processes, there are a couple more significant differences that you may not know. First of all, if you don't know yet, the computer's memory or RAM is volatile. It can store data as long as it has an active power source. If you do a soft reboot, and if your motherboard still has power during the process, data in the memory most probably will still be there. However, if you perform a hard reboot, the data in the memory will be gone since you took away the power source.

When there's a problem with the memory, a hard reboot may solve the problem. This is usually in line with memory access errors which sometimes results in the PC hanging up while using it or if it reboots by itself when the data in the memory is accessed. This is most of the time caused by corrupt memory data.

Although it's quite rare, unless you're a programmer, memory errors can happen if there's an error in accessing the memory especially when you're trying out a program. This happens usually when you debug or fix a program. A hard reboot will clear the memory.

There are also instances wherein you experience power outages or sudden electrical surges. Most of the time, based on my experience, your computer will freeze and you will be unable to soft reboot your computer. A hard reboot will be necessary to start the computer up again.

Errors in other devices that are dependent on your computer's power supply can be remedied by hard rebooting your computer. This includes USB devices (mostly storage), video card and hard drives.

But when do you usually do a soft reboot? It is when a certain application freezes or if you just want to re load certain files such as initialization files for certain applications. Or if your operating system is already running so many files and you just want to have a clean slate, a soft reboot will suffice.

Power cycling, the act of turning a piece of electronic hardware off and then turning it back on, is one of the most effective and overlooked troubleshooting step in most problems occurring in electronic devices especially the computer. Those are the differences between a soft and hard reboot and how useful they are.

Sources:
Wikipedia - Power Cycling
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_cycling

Wikipedia - Booting
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booting#Hard_reboot