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Disable Hibernate in Windows Vista

By: Arie Slob

Windows Vista doesn't have an option in the GUI to switch off the power option Hibernate, so even if you don't use it, there will be a Hiberfil.sys file the same size as your computers memory (RAM) located on your system drive (the hard drive where Windows is located). With today's memory sizes of one, two or more gigabytes, you can choose to reclaim this hard drive space by opening an elevated command prompt:

Click Vista's Start button, and in the Start Search box type cmd. At the top of the Start menu (under the Programs header), you will see cmd.exe listed; right-click this entry, and from the context menu click Run as administrator (Figure) (you can also press the Ctrl+Shift+Enter keys simultaneously after you type cmd in Vista's Start Search box, and this will also get you an elevation prompt to run cmd.exe in administrator mode). Now type the command powercfg -H off. This will turn off hibernate & remove the file Hiberfil.sys (to see this file in Windows Explorer, you have to set Windows Explorer to Show hidden files and folders, which you can enable on the View tab from the Folder Options Control Panel applet).

To re-enable hibernate support, run the command powercfg -H on from an elevated command prompt.

Note that not all systems may support hibernate. You can check your systems available sleep states by running the command powercfg /a from a command prompt.


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