I don't know how MSDE manage disk writes (or how this can be configured), but if the situation is like you described and it doesn't bypass windows cache when write to disk , I think that MSDE databases can get corrupted too (but I don't know for sure). And is easy to repair a DBF than a MSDE database .
Last year, when I was seaching for a database server to use instead of DBFs, I've found Firebird SQL Server, based on Interbase 6 code and free. It is small (< 3 MB installer), low resources usage , fast and has automatic crash recovery. It use forced writes by default (write directly to HDD) and is very hard to corrupt the database (tried with 5 instances of VFP inserting data and power off in the middle of process, multiple times, but I didn't succeded, started normally after).
The major issue is the your application needs to be rewritten if you wat to use a SQL database.

Dorin


>We have an application used by people on their home computers and we are having lots of problems with corrupt DBFs, because they constantly turn off their computers, have power outages, kids turn off the machine, etc. No amount of "training" has helped. So, we're wondering does MSDE have corruption problems like DBFs? Would MSDE be more stable in such an environment?