What happens to Private State files when the PDM server is rebooted?

What happens to Private State files when the PDM server is rebooted?  Our IT contractor wants to perform maintenance on our PDM server and says that all files need to be checked in first.  We have Private State files from users who left the company, and some that the users say they're unable to undo the checkout, nor delete.

We're running SolidWorks 2016 PDM Standard.

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