Why do I have a Hibernation file.

[kol12]

I'm just wondering why I have a hiberfil.sys file when I don't use hibernation. I sometimes allow my computer to go to sleep but hibernate and hybrid sleep are disabled in my power settings.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

You (or someone) must have used the "Hibernate" option at some time in the past.
When you disable the Hibernate option, the existing hiberfil.sys file is not automatically deleted.
You can safely delete it manually.

Should you wish to use Hibernate at some point in the future, a new hiberfil.sys will automatically be created.

 

[photonboy]

https://support.microsoft.com/en-ca/kb/920730

See if that works.

 

[kol12]

https://support.microsoft.com/en-ca/kb/920730

See if that works.

"The Windows Kernel Power Manager reserves this file when you install Windows."

Does that mean Windows automatically reserves space on the OS drive for a Hibernation file?

 

[13thmonkey]

^ yes, unless you turn it off using the powercgf command, I thought SSD's generally had it switched off.

 

[USAFRet]

^ yes, unless you turn it off using the powercgf command, I thought SSD's generally had it switched off.

No, it's not off by default.
Just sitting there, sucking up drive space.

 

[Colif]

Check what power button does when you turn PC off, you might already be using it without knowing.

http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/4189-fast-startup-turn-off-windows-10-a.html

 

[photonboy]

Hey,
I know for a fact you can REMOVE the Hibernation file.

I thought my link would work. If not, Google for how because you can do it.

I have a Samsung SSD, and using the Samsung Magician software I can choose to NOT have Hibernation (it's there to reduce the number of writes to the SSD).

 

[USAFRet]

Hey,
I know for a fact you can REMOVE the Hibernation file.

I thought my link would work. If not, Google for how because you can do it.

I have a Samsung SSD, and using the Samsung Magician software I can choose to NOT have Hibernation (it's there to reduce the number of writes to the SSD).

Turn it OFF via command line, no matter what type of drive it is.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/819-hibernate-enable-disable.html

 

[photonboy]

Hey,
I know for a fact you can REMOVE the Hibernation file.

I thought my link would work. If not, Google for how because you can do it.

I have a Samsung SSD, and using the Samsung Magician software I can choose to NOT have Hibernation (it's there to reduce the number of writes to the SSD).

Turn it OFF via command line, no matter what type of drive it is.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/819-hibernate-enable-disable.html

I guess that works the same as the method I linked with my first post.

 

[kol12]

Check what power button does when you turn PC off, you might already be using it without knowing.

http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/4189-fast-startup-turn-off-windows-10-a.html

Ok, so I checked those settings in my power options and I have a tick in "Turn on fast start-up" but no tick in "Hibernation".

Am I actually using Fast Start-up if the Hibernation box is not ticked?

This is the part I'm confused on:

"Fast startup requires that hibernate be enabled. If you only want to use fast startup and don't plan on using hibernate, then you can specify the hiberfile type as reduced to significantly reduce the size of the hiberfile (C:\hiberfil.sys) to about half of its full size."

 

[kol12]

Alright, what's your guy's take on Fast Start-up? It's looks like I've been using it without even knowing. Are there any comparisons around with startup speeds on and off?

 

[Colif]

I doubt it makes a big difference if you booting off SSD but on a HDD system it can increase boot speed a lot.

I can see a small difference in the boot times if I restart as opposed to shut down - restart is only time a PC using fast start up actually turns off. Fast start up means it can store data in ram while PC is "off" so that when you load it has less to load.

I left it on as its not harming me in any way, yes it uses the hibernate file that is on my SSD so it is potentially extra writes, but I am not informed enough to know what it keeps in ram and what it keeps on drive, if you use the same files everyday conceivably there are very few writes to the ssd. I am also not concerned about its size as I have plenty of space on SSD still.

I recall that some people turn it off as it was causing them grief at start up. I suspect most win 10 drivers can now cope with it.

Hibernate may not have a tick next to it but Fast Startup doesn't work without hibernate on so they are related.



I didn't know you could reduce its size... http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/25151-hiberfile-type-specify-full-reduced-windows-10-a.html

Full size it means space equal to 75% of your ram is allocated to the file on drive, partial its only 37.5% (roughly) the size of your ram. So on your PC is goes from 6gb to 3gb...

I just gained back 6gb on my ssd by swapping to partial, since I never used hibernate anyway.

thanks for asking about it, I would never have noticed

 

[kol12]

My Hiberfil.sys is 3.3gb so I'm pretty sure I'm only using fast start-up. I'm guessing it was probably reduced when I disabled Hibernation.

 

[kol12]

Did the above posters not realise that fast start-up was part of the hiberfil.sys? I probably would have proceeded to delete it otherwise. It's ok, it may be new to all of us...

 

[Colif]

win 10 has a lot of new things, and some people base their advice on what came before. Memory management being one of those things that has changed.

It depends on a lot of things as to how smooth it goes. if you have an old PC with an older BIOS or older power supply that doesn't support the new features, then turning it off may be only choice. If you have a NVME drive you may not see any benefit using it anyway, its sort of a helping hand for slower computers but only if they have the right hardware to support it.

 

[photonboy]

This might be a better link:
http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/4189-fast-startup-turn-off-windows-10-a.html

Fast Startup is on by default in W10. As said it won't function of Hibernation is OFF.

*I turn it OFF because it doesn't save me a lot of time. About half of my bootup time is the POST which you can't avoid (unless you stay in Standby mode which I don't do because I prefer to POWER DOWN).

 

[Karadjgne]

120Gb SSD, 16Gb ram. That's a 12Gb portion lost to a useless temp file since pc's have absolutely no need of battery saving options like hibernation. I'll deal with the extra 4 seconds on boot and keep my 12Gb open.

 

[kol12]

Thanks guy's will look at disabling fast startup after my clean Win 10 install which is about to happen now! I didn't use hibernation to begin with but fast startup was enabled. With just fast startup enabled my hiberfil.sys was about 3.3 gb which isn't too bad but we're sort of concluding here that boot times off ssd's are fast enough without it right?

 

[Karadjgne]

With a fresh install, I could cold boot - internet in 9 seconds. That's using the fast boot. If you use the reset button, it bypasses fast boot and does a full startup. That took me @13 seconds. Now, with all the crap that's necessary like Antivirus, Office, SpeedFan, CCleaner, realtemp etc I boot without fast boot in @23 seconds. All this vrs the old 2.5 minutes my old pc took with no ssd and WinXp.

I turn on the pc, sit down, adjust the chair, sip my coffee, grab the mouse, slap my fingers on ASWD and in that shory time, the pc is ready. Usually before I am. With a smaller ssd, hibernation honestly isn't worth the extra few seconds, especially if you have 16Gb of ram.

 

[photonboy]

120Gb SSD, 16Gb ram. That's a 12Gb portion lost to a useless temp file since pc's have absolutely no need of battery saving options like hibernation. I'll deal with the extra 4 seconds on boot and keep my 12Gb open.

It makes a lot of sense for my sister. She has a 2-year-old laptop with a 320GB HDD.

She has her mail, and word processor open, and when she has to travel to work or home she simply closes the lid (it's set to Hibernate automatically).

It takes about 15 seconds to come out of Hibernation (most is the POST), but over a MINUTE to start up from cold boot.

She also has 4GB of system memory which is plenty for her usage, so the Hiberfil is 4GB or less on a 320GB HDD.

So it makes sense for a lot of people. Even if she has a 120GB SSD it would still be practical for her since she only uses about 40GB right now. It would still save her some time, and wearing the SSD out isn't likely.

 

[Karadjgne]

Operative words there are HDD and LAPTOP. Windows is a 'one-size-fits-all' OS. It works on laptops, desktop, tablet, phones. Laptops, especially with hdds, need every battery saving option available. A simple boot, using the processor as it does the hdd as it does, takes quite a while and a lot of juice. Even a startup from standby sucks on the battery. So hibernation makes a lot of sense in time / battery life savings.

Does next to nothing for a desktop that's AC powered and uses a SSD for boot drive except for save a few seconds (literally) and eat up space / read-write life for no benefit.

 

[kol12]

So if your not using hibernation the hiberfil.sys is still used for fast startup right? I've disabled fast startup but still have the hiberfil.sys, can I delete it now?

 

[Karadjgne]

If you disable it by command it'll delete itself. If you delete it without the command, it'll come back on reboot.

 

[kol12]

This might be a better link:
http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/4189-fast-startup-turn-off-windows-10-a.html

Fast Startup is on by default in W10. As said it won't function of Hibernation is OFF.

*I turn it OFF because it doesn't save me a lot of time. About half of my bootup time is the POST which you can't avoid (unless you stay in Standby mode which I don't do because I prefer to POWER DOWN).

Are you sure that's correct? Fast Startup is on by default but I don't think hibernation is... I've just clean installed and under power options "Allow hybrid sleep" is on by default but "Hibernate after" defaults to never...