The mysterious hiberfil.sys file.
It happens to most users of Windows XP. One day you are searching
for a file or cleaning up the PC's hard drive and you encounter a
huge file - hiberfil.sys. Normally located at C:\hiberfil.sys, its
size can vary from 250MB to over 1GB. You try to delete the file -
it's not a good idea to delete files you don't understand - but
Windows won't oblige anyway. That's why you are here.
Windows XP has a feature that is not very well
documented and it will be totally new to users of older systems
such as Windows 95 or 98. This new feature is called Windows
hibernation. Instead of shutting down and restarting your
computer, Windows takes a snapshot of everything running on your
system, copies it to the hard drive and then turns off most of
your hardware. To wake up from hibernation you normally move the
mouse or hit the spacebar on the keyboard.
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In theory, it is supposed to be a quick shortcut or power
saving option that allows you to leave your PC in suspended animation
until you are ready to work again. However, in practice, most people find
little time difference between shutting down and using hibernation. For
people who use drive imaging to backup their system, the hiberfil.sys file
can bloat the backup files - making them larger (sometimes over 1GB
bigger!) and therefore slower to copy/restore.
Hibernation temporarily 'freezes' the computer when the PC
becomes inactive, so it won't work if you have tasks running constantly (eg
downloading files). However it can be handy if you want the computer to
sleep after a task has completed (such as creating a video).
OK, that's the role of hibernation - so what is the
hiberfil.sys file and why is it so big? Hibernation takes everything in
memory and writes it to your hard drive as the hiberfil.sys file. If you
have 512MB of memory, then hiberfil.sys will be about 512MB. If you have
1GB, the file will be around 1GB. The important point to remember is that
even if you don't use hibernation, hiberfil.sys will still take up this
huge amount of disk space. The way to remove the file is to turn off the
hibernation feature (by default, hibernate is activated automatically when
XP is installed). Here's how to do it:
- Open the Windows Control Panel
- Double-click Power Options
- Click the Hibernate tab, de-select
the 'Enable hibernate support' check box, and then click Apply.
- Restart your computer and
hiberfil.sys will be automatically deleted.
- If you change your mind in the future
and would like to use hibernation, go to the Windows Help &
Support Center and search for 'enable hibernation'. It should be the
first result. The instructions detail some other steps you may need to
follow to reactivate the hibernation.
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