Windows 7 – Enable or disable hibernation

Posted on October 27, 2009 at 5:43 am

In Windows 7, if you want to enable hibernation, it’s not as easy as it used to be in Windows XP. Now if you go to Power Options in Windows 7, there is no longer any tab for Hibernate.

In Windows 7 actually, there is not even a mention of hibernation, only the new Sleep mode.

You can enable the hibernate option in Windows 7 in two different ways, either via the Power Options dialog or via the command prompt.

Enable hibernation Windows 7 via Power Options

If you go to Control Panel, click on Change when the computer sleeps.

enable hibernation windows 7

Now click on Change advanced power settings and the Advanced settings dialog will pop up. You will notice there is an option for Sleep and only underneath that option is there an option for Hibernation.

windows 7 enable hibnerate

Expand the Hibernate after option and change the value from Never to whatever time period you desire.

Enable hibernation Windows 7 via command prompt

If you want to write a script to enable hibernation on a bunch of computers at once or if you just like the command prompt better, you can go to Start, then type in CMD and right-click and Run as Administrator.

Now type in the following command to turn on hibernation:

powercfg.exe /hibernate on

If you want to turn off hibernation, it’s pretty easy too:

powercfg.exe /hibernate off

That’s it! If you’re having problems with Sleep mode in Windows 7, it might be worth enabling Hibernation until they release the first service pack for Windows 7. Enjoy!

» Filed Under Windows 7

Related Posts

Comments

4 Responses to “Windows 7 – Enable or disable hibernation”

  1. Jack said on : November 25th, 2009 at 2:01 pm

    Thanks for this information, but I have one questions. What exactly is the difference between the Sleep mode in Windows 7 and hibernation? I was under the impression that Hibernation was going to be replaced by this new mode…guess not!


  2. Wiley said on : December 13th, 2009 at 12:33 am

    Note that you can also type in powercfg -h off to turn off hibernation in Windows 7. Also, this is the only method that will completely delete the hiberfil.sys file.


  3. Jesus said on : February 27th, 2010 at 7:35 pm

    Thank you, finally I was able to delete that file that was taking up unnecessary space!


  4. Lassie said on : March 9th, 2010 at 11:11 pm

    I disabled hibernation using the method you described, but the hiberfil.sys file is still there. What am I doing wrong? Do I have to manually delete it? Thanks.


Please post your comments/suggestions!