Is there a way to prevent the Windows XP system from corrupting the OS when it is powered off uncleanly. I have a system which will regularly be shutdown uncleanly. Now when it reboots it runs into problems like file corruption making the user have to do something to restore windows. Is there a way to make things like the critical system files, the registry read only so that when an unclean shutdown occurs I can just reboot to come back to windows. Or is there a better Windows OS for this type of setting? My computer is a sbc running in a VME chassis that gets shutdown occasionally. When the VME is powered off I lose power and bad things happen. I can't add hardware to the system (too costly, no room).

There is no OS that is resistant to this type of corruption. The issue is not with the OS but that of how disks are written to and how that information is stored. Your goal is to stop the inappropriate shutdowns. This is what UPS and UPS autoshutdown software is all about.

The NTFS file system is more resilient to this type of abuse but FAT32 is extremely vulnerable. If you a regularly getting unclean shut downs you need to solve that problem. A UPS will do it. you wouldn't stop you car by driving it into the was if the brakes didn't work would you - you would get them fixed. So fix the problem and not just treat the consequences. Stuart

thanks for your replies, but perhaps some background information of this system would be needed. My computer is a sbc running in a VME chassis that gets shutdown occasionally. When the VME is powered off I lose power and bad things happen. I can't add hardware to the system (too costly, no room).

If you can't put in a ups [you do know what a ups is, right?] you have no solution. Highly recommend you make a restore image for when the system is so corrupt you can't boot.