Question

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.

Show comments

Submit an answer


This textbox defaults to using Markdown to format your answer.

You can type !ref in this text area to quickly search our full set of tutorials, documentation & marketplace offerings and insert the link!

Sign In or Sign Up to Answer

These answers are provided by our Community. If you find them useful, show some love by clicking the heart. If you run into issues leave a comment, or add your own answer to help others.

Accepted Answer

If you’re worried about possibly losing data, I’d shut down the MySQL service then shut down the entire server.

Any data written to disk should be preserved so long as the server is shutdown gracefully through the command prompt.

Try DigitalOcean for free

Click below to sign up and get $200 of credit to try our products over 60 days!

Sign up

Become a contributor for community

Get paid to write technical tutorials and select a tech-focused charity to receive a matching donation.

DigitalOcean Documentation

Full documentation for every DigitalOcean product.

Resources for startups and SMBs

The Wave has everything you need to know about building a business, from raising funding to marketing your product.

Get our newsletter

Stay up to date by signing up for DigitalOcean’s Infrastructure as a Newsletter.

New accounts only. By submitting your email you agree to our Privacy Policy

The developer cloud

Scale up as you grow — whether you're running one virtual machine or ten thousand.

Get started for free

Sign up and get $200 in credit for your first 60 days with DigitalOcean.*

*This promotional offer applies to new accounts only.