First you tell the Boinc manager to suspend projects on shutdown. To do this, on the boinc manager on the main menu you go to Options, choose Exclusive Applications, then on suspend cpu and network usage and also on gpu, click on Add button and go to C:\windows\system32. Choose the file "shutdown.exe" (this is the program that controls windows shutdown). If you can't find this program, it might be hidden, so follow these instructions:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/show-hidden-files-and-folders-in-windows-vista/?PageSpeed=noscript

Now we are going to tell windows NOT to auto-kill programs on shutdown, so that the programs have time to close themselves.
1. Press "Window +R" keys to start "Run" dialogue box and type "gpedit.msc" in the dialogue box.

2. Click "OK", "Local Group Policy Editor" window will pop up.

3. Navigate to "Computer Configuration" --> "Administrative Templates" --> "System" --> "Shutdown Options". Double-click "Turn off automatic termination of applications that block or cancel shutdown" on the right panel. In the new dialogue box popped up, set configuration option as "Enabled".

If the above procedure doesn't work, you can do the following to stop windows from auto-killing tasks:
(Be careful, because this is done by editing the windows registry, and if you do it wrong, your windows might not boot at all.)
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/37417-autoendtask-apps-not-responding-shutdown-windows.html

I tested this a few times this week by making windows (7 64bit SP1) shutdown without closing boinc and without suspending projects and it worked for me. No data corruption so far.

Cool story bro.

But I have to say I've never had data corruption when shutting down, BOINCing for 10 years a dozen machines at a time. But then I only use XP and Ubuntu, so maybe they are safer. Though I doubt it.

I have already had 5 recently after i started using boinc, and my computer is stable. All drivers updated, i play games and have done video editing with virtualdub, no problems with that.

There used to be a [Vista related] BOINC registry tweak to change the seconds delay, but frankly since W7 not paid much attention. Client is shut down by OS [I only run service installs if that is the difference].

On Ubuntu 14:04 LTS a shutdown is like 5 seconds. Never see corrupted tasks.

Maybe it's something with write delays that causes you to have this, but strictly speaking, BOINC is supposed to know the last good checkpoint from which to resume.

Anyway, thanks for the tips, did not know there were other ways to influence shutdown via the GUI.

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Coelum Non Animum Mutant, Qui Trans Mare Currunt

Maybe it's something with write delays that causes you to have this, but strictly speaking, BOINC is supposed to know the last good checkpoint from which to resume.

Almost all of my data corruption was on the longer projects :( (haddam_3p - which takes about 72hs to complete - intel i7 @ 3.2ghz) so maybe there was not a checkpoint yet, although isn't the default of boinc to save every 1 minute ? (i changed that to 15 minutes TODAY because i save on an ssd - will change to save on my only hdd(external usb) after all the current tasks complete (not receiving new tasks for now).

On a side note, people should not be using win xp anymore because of security risks, and if you have a new cpu, only win 7 and up support some new instructions - i know, sounds strange).

...so maybe there was not a checkpoint yet, although isn't the default of boinc to save every 1 minute ? .

Checkpointing is something the science application does, not BOINC. The value set in Request tasks to checkpoint at most every N seconds will be ignored by the science application if you set it to a value much lower than the one programmed into the application.

You'll have to ask at CPDN forums how long it normally takes for their haddam_3p application to checkpoint.

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ok, thanks Ageless and SekeRob2.