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Posted by: Yoni Oct 14 2007, 03:26 AM

What's the big fuzz with Windows Vista's Hibernate option? I did some research aside with our greatest friend (Google) and found out many users are reporting that Hibernate is not showing up in the Shutdown pop up options under their Start Menu (Windows Orb). Ben, don't blame E-machines' representatives because we all have one of those days

Going forward, Microsoft's Support explains the following:

The hybrid sleep feature and the hibernation feature in Windows Vista may become unavailable after you use the Disk Cleanup Tool

Symptoms

After you use the Disk Cleanup Tool in Windows Vista, you may experience the following symptoms:
• You cannot see the Hibernate option in Power Options.
• When you use the sleep feature, the computer does not recover its settings if power is lost.

CAUSE

This problem occurs when the Disk Cleanup Tool disables the hibernation file. The hibernation file must be enabled to access the hybrid sleep feature and the hibernation feature in Windows Vista.

When the hibernation file is disabled, and the hybrid sleep feature is enabled, a backup of open programs and open files will not be saved to the disk when you use the sleep feature in Windows Vista. Additionally, if the computer loses power while the Windows is in sleep mode, open programs and open files will not be recovered, and any unsaved work will be lost.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem in Windows Vista, run the powercfg -h on command at a command prompt to enable the hibernate feature and the hybrid sleep feature. To run this command, follow these steps:

1. Click Start Start button , click All Programs, and then click Accessories.
2. Right-click Command Prompt, click Run as administrator, type powercfg -h on, and then press ENTER.

APPLIES TO

• Windows Vista Enterprise 64-bit edition
• Windows Vista Home Basic 64-bit edition
• Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit edition
• Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit edition
• Windows Vista Business
• Windows Vista Business 64-bit edition
• Windows Vista Enterprise
• Windows Vista Home Basic
• Windows Vista Home Basic Beta
• Windows Vista Home Premium
• Windows Vista Starter
• Windows Vista Ultimate

What's missing in the article that people are still reporting the Hibernate option not being showed? The answer is very simple: The long analized and studied Shutdown options under Windows Vista is still very primitive in my personal opinion. They tried to make it user friendly and easy to access but that's not really the opinion standar users have from those Shutdown options delivered with Windows Vista.

First of all, you need to understand Power options in Windows Vista. (Sleep, Hybrid Sleep, Hibernate)

Sleep is a power-saving state. Sleep saves all open documents and programs, and allows the computer to quickly resume full-power operation (typically within several seconds) when you want to start working again. Putting your computer to sleep is like pausing a DVD player: the computer immediately stops what it’s doing and is ready to start again when you want to resume working.

Hybrid sleep: is the same Sleep power-saving state: The computer enters a low power-consumption mode, keeping programs and data state in memory but also writes the memory content to disk, which means in the event of a power outage the computer's state can be recovered from the disk version of the memory state.

Hibernate: Hibernation is a power-saving state that saves your open documents and programs to your hard disk and then turns off your computer. When you’re ready to use the computer again, it comes out of hibernation in seconds and restores all of your open programs and documents that were saved. Of all the power-saving states that Windows uses, hibernation uses the least amount of power. (Of course it does because it is the only power option that allows you to completely turn off your PC).

Better now huh? so let's go back to our mysterious Hibernate option (button).

How do you bring Hibernate back into your Shutdown options under Start menu?

Click the Start Orb and type: power options (typing power is usually good enough) and Power Options will show up in your search results. (Don't forget you need administrative privileges to change power options. (Right click\ Run as administrator)



Once Power Option window pops up, expand Sleep options and look for Allow Hybrid Sleep. Make sure to set Hybrid Sleep to OFF

Apply your changes (Click Apply and OK to exit Power Options window saving your changes)

Let's do now what Microsoft explained in their support page. Go back to your Start Orb, click it and type: cmd (Don't forget you need administrative privileges all the time. Right click\ Run as administrator)



In the command prompt window, type: powercfg -h on and press ENTER. Close all your applications, save your work and restart your PC. Next time you boot up Windows Vista, Hibernate should show up in your Shutdown options under your Start Menu.



And what happened to my Hybrid Sleep state?

Well, if you want Hibernate option to show up under Start Menu you have no options but to turn Hybrid Sleep OFF! Why? Don't ask me, go ask Microsoft and they will tell you why (I guess)...

NOTE: Hybrid Sleep does NOT turn Hibernate power state off which means you can still put your system into Hibernate mode.

If you decide to turn Hybrid Sleep back on and you want a quick access to the Hibernate button (option) you can create a shortcut in your Desktop with the command line shutdown.exe command as follow:

Click the Start Orb and type: "shutdown /h" without quotes. Right click the shutdown /h result in your search and Send to -> Desktop (create shortcut). By pressing ENTER after typing shutdown /h in your Start search, you can put the system into Hibernate with no questions asked, no UAC prompt, no other confirmation.

Posted by: Chris W Oct 14 2007, 12:12 PM

Oh nice, that's very helpful information. I'm sure this will help a lot of people understand this

Posted by: vista custo Oct 14 2007, 02:28 PM

Very nice i use the sleep function the most since i find it the most convenient to use

Posted by: deeper2k Nov 11 2007, 05:33 AM

Oh, very useful information. Thanks, Yoni.

Posted by: citroentech Apr 12 2008, 12:30 PM

Great info! I'll keep it in mind! !