Did I damage my focus motor? Newbie here. Nikon d7000?

Hey guys so I want to begin by saying I'm totally new to DSLR photography.

When I first received my Nikon d7000 a couple days ago I latched on my 50mm f/1.8d lens. I didn't even know pressing the shutter button halfway down focused. So what I did for my first probably 10-15 shots the first hour I got my camera was I manually focused the lens by moving the lens focus ring then I would take the picture. All of this while my Autofocus was set to on. Now I realized my mistake relatively quickly and started only using the autofocus function. I didn't notice any problems but I read online the following day that that is a huge no-no. Especially with a lens like a 50mm f/1.8d because it uses the d7000 internal focus motor. I got scared when I saw posts saying that the internal motor has got to be damage/stripped/whatever.

However, when I was manually focusing it I didn't experience any hard resistance like other people talked about. Was it because I wasn't pressing the shutter button? Just manually focusing and then pressing to take the picture.

I would just like to here some more opinions on if my focus motor is probably damaged or not. What are some of the signs I should look for if it is?

I also have a Tamrom 70-300 vc and on some pictures it won't focus and take the picture. Is that a case by case basis and the camera settings or could it be linked to what I described above?

You would feel and hear the resistance if you were stripping the focus motor. Doesn't sound like you have an issue there.

There are many things that will make autofocus difficult, more so with a slow lens like that Tamron. Low light and/or low contrast are the two usual reasons.

I doubt any damage was done. In fact some lenses behave differently.

The only lenses you need to worry about are lenses such as the Nikon AF 80-200mm f/2.8. When you put that lens into manual focus, it locks the autofocus screw, so you must also put the camera into manual focus (auto-manual focus lever near the front of the camera). If you don't, the camera's autofocus motor could bind.

But for your 50mm f/1.8 lens, it does not lock the focus screw so you should be OK.

Digital lenses are slippery to focus manually. If you have no experience previously with manual focusing, you wouldn't notice. It is easy to turn the focus ring even with AF on. It just gets much easier when AF is off.

To verify that you haven't broken it yet, set the focus switch to AF then try to focus on something 4 feet away from you. Do this under good lighting conditions. If the lens moves to make your subject clear, focus on something far, like 30 feet away. The lens should turn again to make that clear. If everything works as it should then no harm was done. Just remember not to do it again, manually focus with the AF switch on.