Discussion on:

Delete hiberfil.sys by disabling Windows Hibernate function

Hiberfil.sys can use several GB of hard disk space. Delete the file, and it will likely return. In the above article I explain how to get rid of it for good by disabling Windows Hibernate feature.

As someone who doesn't use hibernate, having to disable it wasn't a sacrifice. Honestly, I've never had much luck getting hibernate to work properly.

But, I'm curious if other have had better luck. Take the quick poll in the article and let me know if you use Hibernate.

Original tip and poll:
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/itdojo/?p=1493

I'm sure this is just my nature, but I tried hibernate with my first laptop back in 98. It would crash every time when I would try to bring the machine back up. Have never trusted it since. One of the first things I do when configuring a new machine at work is disable the hibernate function.

Me too
And i don't have a laptop and it works as crapy as well on a home pc.
Computer will freeze 99% of the cases ( it started once, probably a bug).

My work PC is running Win7 64-bit with hibernate enabled. I have schedule my work PC to turn on from hibernate in the morning and off (hibernated) at evening. My home PC is also running Win7 64-bit with hibernate enabled and I manually hibernate my home PC every night.
Both computers are running smoothly with hibernate function. It might be a good time to take a second look with Windows 7.

I have been running Windows 7 Ultimate x64 for several months now. Even though I had thought I had hibernate shut off, the computer continued to use the feature. Every morning when I got to the computer, and tried to revive it from hibernate brought about a Reset and re-boot. Utter failure again.

Thanks for this tip on how to disable via the command line. Now I know it is disabled and my computer will not hibernate anymore.

My laptop is also running Win7 HP and I will be fixing this issue there today also.

on my Dell Latitude laptop running Windows Vista and have never had a problem.

I must be one lucky fella, but I use the hibernate feature once a day with no problems whatsoever.

Used to use it on XP Pro SP 2/3
Now use it on Win7 Ultimate.

There was only one time I recall Win7 not turning the power off after dumping the memory to HD, but a power button hold fixed that. After waking the laptop up everything worked flawlessly, so I wouldn't consider this a problem... More of a glitch.

I have a Dell pc in home (Pentium D 3.0Ghz, 250GB, ATI 2900HD, DVDRW) who hibernates well with windows xp and windows vista but I cannot put this pc to sleep?or hibernate now with windows 7.

Everytime I hibernate the pc, the computer restarts.

Is like a nightmare, I test lot of stuff and I cannot solve the issue!

If Hibernation is failing on you then you've got a problem with the hardware power management system in your PC.

Contact Dell, see if they've got an updated driver to fix the problem?

It could probably be is a symptom of a bigger problem.

Hibernation works since XP SP3.

My pc hibernates ok with windows xp and windows vista. Now with windows 7, i have issues with hibernation. I need to power off and power on normally, and this is a time waste and a headache. I test everything so far. I cannot suspend either. Lot of troubleshooting and time without success.

If your PC doesn't work correctly don't agonise about it. Contact either motherboard maker or the PC manufacturer and ask them to sort out the problem.

Like any commercial product it is suppose to work when you buy it.

Your system doesn't even meet the compatibility requirements for Win 7. Then it is all on you. (Never mind that hibernation has been an iffy prospect since day one.)

If you installed 7, you should have done this first:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=1b544e90-7659-4bd9-9e51-2497c146af15&displaylang=en

The pc is a DELL Dimmension 9150. Is an "old" pentium D (I purchased it in 2006) but is still a good hardware computer (raid 1 sata 500GBx2), 6USB and is upgraded with 4GB RAM, PCI Express Saphire HDMI HD2900 (700usd video card), 1 Bluray reader, 1 DVDRW, Logitech & Mediacenter Logitech Keyboard, 24inch Samsung Monitor (DVI), 800w PSU.

Windows 2000, XP and VISTA hibernates and suspend without any issues, only Windows7 give me problems.

The pc is "old" but is very very fast with the installed hardware.

I'm running the Windows 7 compatibility software from MS now...

Well if it's not compatible with Windows 7 why would you even try running it, let alone moan when it doesn't work?

Well considering the systems we have today, almost everyone has atleast 300+ Gig hdd on a system, and i dont think freeing up 3 or 4 Gb space is going to serve anything, well not much considering the fact that Hibernation is such a valuable feature, I use it atleast once a day and that is when i am going to sleep.

True, I have a 500GB hard drive..., but it is partitioned into several (C - R so 16 total) 30GB chunks.

All the system data goes onto C:, data goes to D:, downloads to E:, games to F:, applications to G:, H: is Temp folder, video rips are in I: etc.

Thus on my system drive, I had a pretty big need to eliminate such an unneeded file to free up that 4GB of space.

Not everyone keeps a single 160, 250, 500GB drive as a single partition.

Is a best practice keep 2 ~ 3 partitions but more than 5 is not normal, not commun and not a best practice.

Is better to have one partition for the OS & applications and other partition for data, email, etc.

In the case of non-linear video editing, ripping, etc... is better to have a dedicated Hard drive (raid0 recommended)

Combining some of your partitions and using folders instead?

What are the benefits of 16 drives? I can understand one for OS, one for data, one for backup (possibly one for the swap file and one for program files), but sixteen??

I'm sure that just creates more admininstrative work for you and your PC, plus it wastes a lot of space: 30GB for temp files? 30GB for downloads (presumably before they're filed away into a different 30GB partition)?

I can't see the benefit of having a separate partition for Program Files.

I think the thinking is that if you need to reinstall windows, you can do so quite easily 'cos you won't have to to reinstall all your apps.

Problems is, the registry is on the C drive, and when that goes, you'll have to reinstall all your apps anyway....

But 16 drives sounds like a bit of an overkill.

ProperName, is there any real advantage to your setup? Or is it just personal preference?

Just curious...

I agree, I don't see any benefits if you have too many partitions.

One partition with the OS / Apps and other for data is more than enough. A Ghost image of the OS partition and regular backups of the data partition will have all the data secure and ready for recovery.

Data in D can be back it up to an external HD using Beyond Compare or any Backup tool. The OS must be backed up with an Image app Like Altiris, Ghost or even W7 Image utility

One should NOT be using a hard disk to that extent anyway. Any logical disk should have at least 20% to 25% of free space anyway (for defragmentation, temp file necessities during installations, etc.)

If you are cramming your current drive to the gills - whatever its capacity - you should buy a larger drive.

Now, whether the Hibernate feature works or not would depend on the individual system. I've tried it on several different systems and it has worked flawlessly about 99.9% of the time. Like another dude said (above) it failed to shutdown so I did a hard power-off. Except that it booted normally and did not recover from the hiberfile.sys.

I too tried hibernation in XP SP1 and had such a horrible time with it that any PC I have now it's one of the first things to go. I prefer the extra hard disk space over a minute or two of boot time.
Haven't tried this in Win7 yet, but am expecting a new PC in a couple of days (core i5...can't wait!) so will give it a go and see what transpires.
Thanks for the tip, if it doesn't work out, now I know how to get rid of it permanently.
Cheers,

Is it possible to Move hiberfil to another drive?
I have an SSD drive and would still like to use the Hibernate feature. Can I move the Hiberfil to another drive? How?
Thanks for all your great tips!

Before disabling Hibernate make sure you change the default Vista "shutdown" button. It is brown, not red, so it automatically sends the PC/laptop into hibernate mode by default.

Another tip don't resize the partition with the the hiberfil.sys file active - Windows doesn't necessarily restart after this.

In W7Pro of which I am the administrator, and I get:

"You do not have permission to enable or disable the hibernate feature."

let me ask if were logged in as an Administrator at the time (hopefully not while surfing the internet), or if you used Runas to open the command prompt with admin privileges.

The only other thing I could imagine is some security software jacking up the requirement to system-level privileges.

And done.

Thank you, my man.

(run as)

I will award you one.

I was afraid I'd find out that Win 7 or an edition thereof had something horribly wrong with it.

Thinking about it, I remember now that Vista and 7 both have the real administrator accounts hidden - installation does not create an administrator account for you by default, like XP and earlier versions did.

But I've barely touched Vista, and it has been a while since I have used 7. I only had a test license for the beta and RC.

you must elevate permissions for cmd. type CMD in the search box, then right click on the cmd icon, choose
"run as administrator", then run the command.

That is necessary for some command line duties.

Beat you both to it four days ago.

I tend to disable and delete the hiberfil.sys file at least once every 6 months when I do a full and long defrag of my hard drive. After the defrag using a program that also defrags the free space into one long block I then re enable it again. I use Hibernation when I'm called away unexpectedly and am in the middle of something - that way i can turn off the computer and come back later and restart the computer right back to where I was when I was interrupted.
I normally only use hibernation once every couple of months but sometimes in the holidays this can increase to once or twice a week!

I like the idea, I will try it

Why would I want to delete it?

I use Hib. every time I need to switch off my PC. It's fast at shutting down and due to Hib. it's fast at returning me to the exact state I left it.

I only do a full restart if I'm installing updates or a routine chkdsk.

Great article. If the hibernate option doesnt appear when you click the arrow by Shut Down then follow the steps in this page:
http://cyberst0rm.blogspot.com/2011/07/how-to-enable-hibernate-in-windows-7.html

I am receiving the following error in hibernate mode....

A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

Technical information:

*** STOP: 0x0000007F (0x00000000, 0x00000000, 0x0000000, 0x00000000)

It doesn't matter how much memory I have, I am still receiving the same error. Does anyone have an answer?

Thanks for the great tip. I was wandering why the hell it wasn't deleting the file.

For those of you who have more than 4GB of RAM, and want to free even more space, pagefile.sys can also be removed by not allowing memory to SWAP into HDD (system/advanced/disable Virtual Memory). Its a great spacesaver, especially for the SSD guys.

I don't often find an article which is 100% relevant, 100% correct and 100% clear, but this was one such.

Thanks!

it really helpful function...