How to disable hibernation mode in Windows

Updated: 01/24/2018 by Computer Hope

To disable or enable hibernation mode in Windows, select your version of Windows below and follow the steps.

Windows 8, 10, and 11 users

  1. Open the Control Panel.
  2. Click or double-click the Power Options icon.
  3. In the Power Options window, click the Change plan settings link for the power option currently selected.
  4. In the Edit Plan Settings window, click the Change advanced power settings link.
  5. In the Power Options window, expand the Sleep section, then the Allow hybrid sleep option, and change the Setting to Off.
Tip

On laptops, instead of a Settings option, you may see two options named On battery and Plugged in. Change both options to Off to disable hibernation mode.

Turn off Windows hibernation mode

  1. Click OK to save the setting change.
Tip

Turn hibernation mode back on by changing the Setting in step 5 to On.

Windows Vista and Windows 7 users

  1. Open the Control Panel.
  2. Double-click the Power Options icon.
  3. In the Power Options window, click the Change plan settings link for the power option currently selected.
  4. In the Edit Plan Settings window, click the Change advanced power settings link.
  5. In the Power Options window, expand the Sleep section, then the Allow hybrid sleep option and change the Setting to Off.
  6. Click OK to save the setting change.

To check if hibernate mode was turned off successfully, open the C: drive on the computer and seeing if the hiberfil.sys file is in the root (c:\hiberfil.sys). If you see that file, hibernate mode is not fully turned off. Follow the steps below to fully turn off hibernate mode.

  1. Open a Windows command line.
  2. Type the following at the command prompt and press Enter: powercfg.exe -h off
  3. Verify hibernate mode is now fully turned off by checking for the hiberfil.sys file on the C: drive.
Tip

You can turn hibernate mode back on by following the steps above, but instead, type powercfg.exe -h on at the command prompt and change the Allow hybrid sleep setting to On.

Windows XP users

  1. Open the Control Panel.
  2. Double-click the Power Options icon.
  3. In the Power Options Properties window, click the Hibernate tab.
  4. Uncheck the Enable hibernation check box to disable the feature, or check the box to enable it. This window also displays the total space required for hibernation.
Tip

You can turn hibernation mode back on by checking the Enable hibernation check box.