Restart

Restart is the act of starting a device, program, or system anew after it has stopped or become unresponsive. In computing, the term is often used interchangeably with reboot, though some distinctions exist: a restart can be accomplished by software control without cutting power (soft or warm reboot), or by a hardware action that cycles power (hard or cold reboot).

During a restart, the operating system reinitializes software components, reloads drivers, and clears volatile memory. A cold boot begins from a powered-down state and may run hardware tests, while a warm boot reloads software while preserving some hardware state. In networking or enterprise environments, restarts may target specific services or daemons rather than the entire system (for example, a service restart).

Common reasons to restart include resolving unresponsiveness, applying updates or configuration changes, recovering from errors, or freeing up resources. Restarting can risk data loss if unsaved work is present, and improper restarts can leave file systems corrupted or services in an inconsistent state. Best practices include prompting users to save work, performing orderly shutdowns, and scheduling maintenance with rollouts or rolling restarts for critical systems.

Other uses of the term appear in software engineering and IT operations, where restarting a process or container is a standard recovery technique. The concept also appears in consumer devices, where a hardware reset button or power cycle is used to restore operation after a fault. See also: reboot, reset, power cycle, warm boot, cold boot.