JSI Tip 9137. Your Windows Server 2003 hangs during shutdown?

When you attempt to shutdown your Windows Server 2003, and user-mode services put it under heavy input/output (I/O) stress, your server hangs, because the shutdown process assumes that user-mode activity is stopped. However, in some circumstances, user-mode services still perform file I/O during the shutdown process.

To workaround this behavior, stop services that perform heavy file I/O before you shut down the computer.