Hibernating is when your computers write all information about the current user sessions and processes to hard disk and shut off. The result is that your computer components will not be consuming energy while not in use, which saves you money and has the side benefit of eliminating annoying fan noise (noise pollution reduction? Al Gore, if you could see me now!) Also, when you do want to use your computer again, it is not necessary to go through the entire bootup/login process again, as all of that information is recalled directly from the saved session. Hibernation in Windows XP is different than standby/sleep, as explained here. Further confusing matters is the newest powersave mode in Windows Vista called "Hybrid sleep". If you're interested, details about that mode can be found here.
I have experimented with hibernation on several different platforms with mixed results. Below I've documented my experiences.
Windows XP
In XP, you can set your computer to hibernate after a period of inactivity. In my experience, this does not work very well. When I first set it up the computer hibernates as expected after about an hour. After a period of time, however, the computer stopped hibernating on it's own and stays on all of the time. I usually end up forcing it to hibernate manually before I head off to bed at night.
Before hibernating either automatically or manually, though, you need to enable hibernation globally. To do this, go to start->control panel, click on "performance and maintenance", then click on "power options". Under the hibernate tab, click the "enable hibernation" checkbox and click ok.
To enable hibernate after a period of inactivity, go to start->control panel. Click on "performance and maintenance", then click on "power options". In the drop-down box, select the amount of time to wait prior to hibernation, and then click "ok".
To force a manual hibernation, you'll need to click start->turn off (just as if you were going to shut down) and then press and hold the shift key. When you do this, the standby icon should change to "hibernate". While still holding the shift key, click on hibernate. If you're feeling extra lucky, you can also edit the registry to show both the hibernate and standby buttons on the shutdown menu. I have tried this method with Windows XP SP3 and it worked well for me. However, as this is a registry hack please proceed with caution.
** Edit - I've seen a lot of searches hit my page looking for how to wake Windows XP from hibernation. I think it depends on your motherboard, but I've always had to hit the power button to bring my XP machine out of hibernation, and have never had a problem doing so. If you want to wake your XP machine automatically, follow the steps listed here.
I have had problems waking XP from sleep mode, to the point of having to hard boot it for revival. That's another reason I prefer hibernation to sleep.
My Vista machine wakes from hibernation with a mouse click.
Windows Vista
After doing some research on the 'net, it seems that many people have had problems with hibernation being disabled globally in Vista and have been unable to turn it back on. Evidently, this needs to be done via command prompt as described here. It's a single command, very simple to execute.
Once hibernation is enabled (or re-enabled, depending on your situation), hibernation settings can be adjusted from the windows GUI. Click on the button formerly known as start (the orb), and in the search bar type "power". The search results should return "power options" under programs. Click on it. The power options window should sho
w your power plans. Choose the power plan of your liking and click on "change plan settings" directly beneath it. In the edit plan settings window, click on "change advanced power settings". In the advanced settings window (as seen on the right) Expand "sleep", then expand "allow hybrid sleep" and click on the drop down to select "yes". Now, expand "hibernate after" and select the drop down to select the amount of inactive time the computer will wait before hibernating. Click OK. I've had very good luck with hibernation in Windows Vista. In fact, my Vista machine hibernates most of the time which is good because it is the largest machine in the house (500watt power supply), and therefore consumes the most power of any computer I own.
Ubuntu Linux
I'm least experienced with Ubuntu, but I have played with it a little bit. When I have used Ubuntu, I have been able to manually place it into hibernation via the shutdown menu (I think it's called "suspend"), similarly to what I do in Windows XP. It resumes just fine, with the exception of some extra rainbow-colors on my top and bottom taskbars. That may be due to my archaic AGP graphics card, though. After hitting several Google links pertaining to Ubuntu and automatic hibernation, I'm convinced that there are more issues than the casual user is willing to deal with. If anyone has more information on whether hibernation due to inactivity is working in Ubuntu, please leave a comment at the bottom of the page.
Windows Home Server
What? Hibernation on a server? Yeah, it's really cool. For those of you with a Windows Home Server I would highly recommend a free addon called "lightsout". The installation is not as straightforward as enabling hibernation in Windows Vista or XP, but it's not terrible. Basically, you install the addon as you would any other (Place in the software/addins folder and install via the home server console), and then apply a few tweaks to your network cards to make sure the server can automatically wake them from hibernation for scheduled tasks like daily backups. You can schedule specific days and times for the server to hibernate and wake itself back up. There is a great step-by-step explanation at We Got Served that I will not attempt to duplicate here.
Of course, when hibernating a server you need to plan carefully. The idea of having a server is to enable you to access your files whenever you need to, and from wherever you happen to be. So, hibernating during the day is not an option for me. I schedule my home server to hibernate from 12:00am to 6:00am every day. It only hibernates when I do! As you can see from the graphic, most days during the timeframe of 12am to 6 am, there are no computers powered on at my house.
This is a huge improvement from the days when I had 2-3 desktop PC's and a server powered on all the time. The energy savings are well worth the extra couple of seconds I have to wait for the computer to wake from hibernation. Al Gore would be so proud!
Got an idea for a topic? E-mail me at toptoad@techonadime.net.
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