Hibernation and Stand By in Windows XP
Windows XP comes with two power management options and I find that many home PC users are unsure how they differ. The options are “Stand By” and “Hibernate”. (Your hardware must be Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI)-compliant but newer PCs come with this feature.)
“Stand By” is a standard option in the dialog that you get when you click “Turn Off Computer” (figure below).
The “Stand By” mode shuts down the display and the hard drive but leaves the computer running with the RAM still powered (and its cooling fans). This setting reduces power consumption but maintains all programs and files that you had open. So when you resume, all open windows and programs are still there. Resuming after being in “Stand By” is quicker than a complete restart but the hard drive still has to be powered up. “Stand By” is not intended for long term shut downs and will gradually drain a laptop battery.
“Hibernation” basically turns everything off and puts the system in a low power maintenance state. The contents of RAM are written to a large file on the hard drive (hiberfil.sys) equal in size to the amount of RAM that you have. When you resume, the contents of the file on the hard drive are restored to RAM. Thus your open files and programs are maintained. Resuming from Hibernation takes longer than Stand By because the hard drive has to write to RAM. “Hibernation” consumes less power than “Stand By” and can be used on a laptop for more extended periods of time.
The “Hibernation” option does not appear in the default configuration when you click “Turn Off Computer”. So how do you choose “Hibernate”? After you click, “Turn Off Computer”, hold down the Shift key. “Stand By” will change to “Hibernate” as long as the Shift key is pressed down. You can also use the keyboard sequence Windows key, u, h.
Hibernation can be enabled or disabled in the Power Management control applet in Control Panel. The dialog can be opened by Start-Control Panel-Performance and Maintenance-Power Options-Hibernate
A faster way to the Power Options applet may be to use the Run line. Open Start-Run and enter “powercfg.cpl” (without quotes). Then click the “Hibernate” tab.
Note that Windows Vista introduced a different power scheme called “Sleep”, which is a hybrid of “Stand By” and “Hibernate”. Shutting down Vista has been discussed previously.
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