Cheers Tony, as you summised I have (at least once) left the drives in a read/write state.

So if I'm reading this right my "synch every time problem" will continue until I carry out these instructions...

ro
umount /dev/hda4
umount /dev/hdc4
swapon /swapfile
fsck -fay /
fsck -fay /dev/hda4
fsck -fay /dev/hdc4
swapoff /swapfile
sync

Is this a once only fix?

How do people cope when they want to run apps in AC & DC mode? (I'm running Palantir and require it to run in AC & DC modes)

Is the answer just to disable the integrity check in Hijack? (is this really an OK thing to do?)

So many questions