diff --git a/bundles/org.eclipse.osgi/defaultAdaptor/src/org/eclipse/osgi/internal/baseadaptor/BaseStorage.java b/bundles/org.eclipse.osgi/defaultAdaptor/src/org/eclipse/osgi/internal/baseadaptor/BaseStorage.java
index b165bfe..cd68456 100644
--- a/bundles/org.eclipse.osgi/defaultAdaptor/src/org/eclipse/osgi/internal/baseadaptor/BaseStorage.java
+++ b/bundles/org.eclipse.osgi/defaultAdaptor/src/org/eclipse/osgi/internal/baseadaptor/BaseStorage.java
@@ -1361,7 +1361,11 @@
 					});
 					runningThread = new Thread(this, "State Saver"); //$NON-NLS-1$
 					runningThread.start();
-					Runtime.getRuntime().addShutdownHook(shutdownHook);
+					try {
+						Runtime.getRuntime().addShutdownHook(shutdownHook);
+					} catch (IllegalStateException e) {
+						// bug 374300 - need to ignore this in case the VM is being shutdown
+					}
 				}
 			}
 		}