Does Shutdown Erase Data

Hi,

I have a wordpress site running on a server, and I unfortunately need to reset the root password because I forgot it. To do that I need to shutdown.

Does a shutdown erase data, such as the files and database for my wordpress site? I am inclined to believe data is just stored on the machine’s hard drive and will persist. However, I have made the mistake of shutting down a server in AWS with some data on its physical disk, and I know that in that case that data is gone forever. I just want to make sure.

Thanks EDIT: I am aware of the risk of losing/corrupting some data that is being processed/accessed in some way at the time of shutdown. I don’t believe this would really apply to a closed development Wordpress site, so my question is about whether most static data that is just sitting there will be fine.