How to Hibernate in Windows XP?

Most of us put the PC into ‘Stand-by mode’ when we plan to be away for a while. ‘Hibernation’ is one more option which can be used effectively.

Stand-by Vs. Hibernation

Stand-by puts the computer in a low power use state. The monitor, hard drive and any other non-essential components are turned off to conserve power. It does not save your desktop configuration or any of your opened documents to disk and so a power failure while on Standby can cause you to lose unsaved data. Reverting from standby is quite easy. Any activity on your keyboard or mouse is enough to bring back your PC to the normal state.

This mode can be put to good use whenever you leave your PC for a short time.

Hibernation on the other hand completely turns off the PC after saving a snapshot of the memory into hard disk. Thus any opened documents, desktop etc. are saved. You need to press the Power button for bringing the PC back into operation. When your PC restarts, it starts where it left off.

When to use Hibernation?

Hibernate your PC when you know that you will be away for a long time. Also hibernation is best used on a laptop running on battery power because Standby mode would still drain a good amount of battery power.

How to Hibernate in Windows XP?

First you need to enable Hibernation feature. To do this:
1. Go to Start–> Control Panel–> Power Options and the select ‘Hibernate‘ tab.
2. Tick ‘Enable Hibernation’ check box.

For some reason, the Hibernate option is not available immediately through the Shutdown dialog in Windows XP. A small trick of holding down the shift key would bring this option to display.