Tech Reprise - Turn off Hibernation and Save Space : Windows Vista/7/8/10/11

How to Delete hiberfil.sys on all Windows versions above Windows Vista ?

By Rounak Roy

September 4th, 2023 5:00PM IST

If you really don't need the Hibernate option, you can delete it by entering a command in Command Prompt. For this command, you must open Command Prompt as an administrator, also known as an Elevated Command Prompt. We will use the Run Method today:

While on your Windows Desktop press Windows Key+R to Open Run Dialog.
Type CMD and don't press Enter yet, instead press Ctrl+Shift+Enter to open Command Prompt as Administrator.
Next in Command Prompt Type powercfg.exe /hibernate off to turn off Hibernation and Delete the hiberfil.sys.
To turn on Hibernation do the same steps as 1, 2, 3 but instead of powercfg.exe /hibernate off type powercfg.exe /hibernate on . This will turn on Hibernation for your Windows installation.

The above method works for Windows versions 7/8/10/11. For Windows XP and Vista follow the below steps:

To turn off Hibernation in Windows Vista: Open the Control Panel and go to Power Options > Hibernate.

Why turn off Hibernation and Delete hiberfil.sys?

Windows stores the RAM data on the hard disk when your machine enters hibernate mode. This enables it to reboot to the previous known state while saving the system state without using any power. This uses a significant amount of drive space as RAM is a volatile memory and loses all data once it loses power. Hibernate will be totally disabled when hiberfil.sys is removed from your computer, freeing up this space.