[SOLVED] Where is the hibernation file written to ?

[Artha Penn]

I want to know that where the hibernation file of Windows 11 is written to. I have an ssd and a hdd in my laptop. I use my hard-disk's partition as paging file. So if i turned on the feature "fast startup" in my windows, does it write the hibernation files to the hhd or ssd ?

 

[hotaru.hino]

It's written to C:\, and you can't change it.

 

[Lafong]

You can disable hibernation to save disk space if you have no use for the hibernation functionality.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

Why on earth would you put the page file on a slow drive??? Let windows manage the page file on the SSD for best performance

 

[TommyTwoTone66]

C:\hiberfil.sys

move your page file back to your SSD. I know why you’ve moved it, you’re worried about wearing out your SSD, based on information still hanging around on the internet from 10 years ago.

don’t worry. SSDs have intelligent wear-levelling routines and automatic spare area based drive replen, so you can just use it for swap file and hibernation without worrying. It will last 20 years minimum.

 

[Ralston18]

But do regular, verified backups anyway.....

 

[USAFRet]

It will last 20 years minimum.

If wearing out from too many write cycles were the only way for it to die, yes.
But they can and do die of other things.

Hence, backups.

 

[TommyTwoTone66]

Yes, of course do backups if you feel like doing them.

Personally, I never do backups as the only things I’d miss are my emails and my Bitcoin wallet, both of which I can get to easily without a backup.

 

[Ralston18]

Yes, of course do backups if you feel like doing them.

Personally, I never do backups as the only things I’d miss are my emails and my Bitcoin wallet, both of which I can get to easily without a backup.

Overall that approach is not at all an encouraging philosophy or practice within IT.

What about being able to restore a system that goes astray? Backups include images, clones, etc. so the system can be easily restored/recovered if something does break or goes wrong.

A backup is far more practical than starting from ground zero with a Windows install following by all interim updates, updating device drivers, re-configuring, then again installing user required applications and games. Could take a long time and some effort to get back to the pre disaster state.

 

[hotaru.hino]

What about being able to restore a system that goes astray? Backups include images, clones, etc. so the system can be easily restored/recovered if something does break or goes wrong.

A backup is far more practical than starting from ground zero with a Windows install following by all interim updates, updating device drivers, re-configuring, then again installing user required applications and games. Could take a long time and some effort to get back to the pre disaster state.

I don't find the system imaging/cloning approach to be practical in my use case, for the following reasons:

• If I have to hit the proverbial nuclear button, I at least like to know I'm starting with a clean slate. For all I know, whatever software or configuration I've had before I decided to press the button is saved in that image, so I'm just going to go back to frustrations.
• The need to continuously refresh the image/clone/whatever.
• I've distilled my setup process to the point where I can be up and running within an hour. I've been able to do this by:
  • I don't have a lot of apps I immediately need/want on the system
  • All of my "necessary" apps, save for a few, can be installed via Ninite.
  • Knowing how to back up and restore my web browser's "state", which would be the thing that would take the longest to set up.
• I try to work with the default settings wherever I can.

I've practiced this song and dance so many times that reinstalling the OS and effectively being 90% where I was takes like 30-45 minutes. Yes a system image could probably do it faster, but my time isn't money.

Even when I'm dabbling with a Linux server, once I have it set up, I don't clone the storage drive. I document what things I needed to do and have what can be scripted in a script. A <20KB text file that still gets me everything I need to get going is a lot more efficient than keeping a 10GB file around.

However I don't immediately dismiss the option of keeping images and clones around, but that just depends on what your needs are and what you're willing to put up with.

 

[Colif]

I want to know that where the hibernation file of Windows 11 is written to. I have an ssd and a hdd in my laptop. I use my hard-disk's partition as paging file. So if i turned on the feature "fast startup" in my windows, does it write the hibernation files to the hhd or ssd ?

You don't need fast startup on an ssd as it doesn't make any difference, they boot up so fast compared to a hdd that the benefits of fast startup don't apply.
Windows 10 only ever uses the page file if it runs out of ram. Windows 10 is more likely to compress program data into ram than to write it to hdd, it only does clear it if another process needs the space

 

[Ralston18]

@hotaru.hino

Fully agree:

Overall the point is that you have a plan and a method that meets your requirements.

And you can rapidly recover your system if and as necessary. 👍

Others (all too many really) often do not have such a recovery plan of any sort - with or without a requirement to explicitly recover lost data files.

Quite problematic when things go completely astray and pushing the "Start" button does nothing.....

I wish more folks would think in broader terms of backup and recovery.

Just my thoughts on the matter.

 

[TommyTwoTone66]

back when we were using 56.6K modems, CDs and floppies to store and download data, I’d agree with you. Back in the windows XP days I took backups, sure.

but these days? What would be the point? I can reinstall Windows 11 from my bootable USB in about 10 minutes, and get it back to how it was (minus all the junk I installed) in about an hour. It would take me that long just to find my latest backup image and restore it, so I would not really save any time, plus I’d have to update all my drivers etc anyway since my backup likely won’t have the latest.

All my save games are on Steam / Battlenet / Uplay etc and reinstalling games takes about 20 minutes per game, and is done as a background task anyway so I don’t even notice it. my movies and tv shows are on Netflix and all my music is on Spotify. The only data which isn’t either in my email or on my phone (which automatically backs itself up) and is vaguely important to me sits in “my documents” and that gets synced to Dropbox.

 

[USAFRet]

back when we were using 56.6K modems, CDs and floppies to store and download data, I’d agree with you. Back in the windows XP days I took backups, sure.

but these days? What would be the point? I can reinstall Windows 11 from my bootable USB in about 10 minutes, and get it back to how it was (minus all the junk I installed) in about an hour. It would take me that long just to find my latest backup image and restore it, so I would not really save any time, plus I’d have to update all my drivers etc anyway since my backup likely won’t have the latest.

All my save games are on Steam / Battlenet / Uplay etc and reinstalling games takes about 20 minutes per game, and is done as a background task anyway so I don’t even notice it. my movies and tv shows are on Netflix and all my music is on Spotify. The only data which isn’t either in my email or on my phone (which automatically backs itself up) and is vaguely important to me sits in “my documents” and that gets synced to Dropbox.

If that works for you, great. It absolutely would not work for me.

People do use their systems for things other than games.
Given cheap drive space, and free automated software...full drive backups are easy.
And easy to recover from.
I can recover any of my drives from an Image no more than 24 hours old, in about an hour.


And to be sure, your DropBox concept IS a backup. And is more than most people do.

I could probably find a dozen threads just in the last week saying:
"HELP!"
'...important work documents...'
'...irreplaceble family photos...'
'...my school work...'