If you have reached this post through search, it can take care that you have a huge hiberfil.sys file on the C drive of your Windows computer 10, 8 o Windows 7, not knowing what this file is and it is not uninstalled. All this, and some additional nuances related to this file, will be covered in this post.
In the instructions, We will break down separately what the hiberfil.sys file is and why it is necessary, how to remove or shrink it to free up disk space and if it can be moved to another disk. Separate instructions on the subject for 10: Windows hibernation 10.
What is hiberfil.sys and why is a hibernate file needed in Windows?
The hiberfil.sys file – it is a hibernation file used in Windows to save data and quickly load it into RAM when the computer or laptop is on.
In recent versions of the Windows operating system 7, 8 and Windows 10, there are two options for power management in sleep mode: one is hibernate mode, in which your computer or laptop works with low power consumption. (but it still works) and can almost instantly return it to the state it was in before putting it to sleep.
The second mode is hibernation, in which Windows writes all the contents of RAM to the hard drive and shuts down the computer. On the next power-up, the system does not start “right from the start”, but the file content is loaded. Consequently, the larger the size of the RAM of the computer or laptop, more space will occupy hiberfil.sys on the disk.
Hibernate mode uses the hiberfil.sys file to save the current state of the computer or laptop memory, and how is a system file, it cannot be erased in Windows with normal methods, even when there is the option to delete it, as an example. as explained below.
You may not see this file on the drive. The reason is because hibernation is already disabled, but most likely you have not enabled Windows to show hidden and protected system files. Note: these are two different options in the explorer view alternatives, In other words, it is not enough to enable the display of hidden files, but you must also uncheck the option “hide protected system files”.
How to delete hiberfil.sys in Windows 10, 8 and Windows 7 disabling hibernation
If you are not using hibernation in Windows, you can delete the hiberfil.sys file by disabling it, freeing up space on the system drive.
The fastest way to disable hibernation in Windows consists of a few simple steps:
- Run the command line as administrator (how to run command line as administrator).
- Enter the command
powercfg -h off
and hit Enter.
- You will not see any success messages, but hibernation will be disabled.
Once the command is run, hiberfil.sys file will be removed from C drive (as usual, no need to restart) and the element “Hibernate” will disappear from Start (Windows 7) o Off (Windows 8 and Windows 10). ) menu.
An additional nuance that Windows users 10 Y 8.1 should pay attention: even if you don't use hibernation, the hiberfil.sys file intervenes in the function of “quick start” of the system, which you can read more about in the Quick Start post. Windows 10. Regularly there will be no significant difference in starting speed, but if you decide to reactivate hibernation, use the method described previously and the command powercfg -h on.
How to disable hibernation using the control panel and registry
The above method, even though in my opinion it is the fastest and most comfortable, It's not the only one. Another way to disable hibernation and thus delete the hiberfil.sys file is through the Control Panel.
Go to the Windows Control Panel 10, 8 o Windows 7 and select “Energy”. In the window that appears on the left, select “Determine sleep mode” and then “Change advanced power settings”. Abra “Lay off” and then “Hibernate later”. And establish “Never” O 0 (zero) minutes. Apply the changes made.
One last way to delete hiberfil.sys. You can do it through the Windows registry editor. I don't know why it may be necessary, but there is such a way.
- Go to the registration branch HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINEN-SYSTEMN-ActualControlSetN-ControlN-Power
- Parametric values HiberFileSizePercent and HibernateEnabled steel, close the registry editor and restart the computer.
Then, if you never use hibernation in Windows, you can disable it and free up some hard drive space. It may not be very relevant, given the current capacities of hard drives, but it can be useful.
How to reduce the size of the hibernate file
Windows allows you not only to delete the hiberfil.sys file, but also reduce the size of this file so that it does not retain all the data, but only those necessary for hibernation and fast boot. The more RAM your computer has, more space will be freed on the system partition.
To reduce the size of the hibernation file, just run the command line as administrator, enter the command
powercfg -h -type reduced
and then press Enter. Immediately after running the command, you will see the new size of the hibernate file in bytes.
Is it feasible to move the hibernation file hiberfil.sys to another drive?
No, hiberfil.sys cannot be moved. Hibernate file is one of those system files that cannot be moved to a drive other than the system partition. There is even an interesting post from Microsoft about this., called “The file system paradox”. The paradox applied to this and other non-mobile files is the next: when the computer is on (even from hibernate mode), files need to be read from disk. This needs a filesystem driver. But the file system driver is on the disk from which it should be read.
To avoid this, a special little driver is used that knows how to find the system files needed to boot into the root of the system drive (and only in that location) and load them into memory, and only then is the system driver file loaded. file, which can work with other partitions. In the case of hibernation, the same thumbnail file is used to load the content of hiberfil.sys, from which the filesystem driver is already loaded.
