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How To Enable Or Disable Hibernate Option In Windows 7

Last Updated on by 242 Comments

In Windows XP, enabling Hibernate option was a straightforward task. One could navigate to Control Panel, Power Options and then Hibernate tab to enable or disable Hibernation feature. But in Windows 7,  we have to follow a different approach to do the same job.

What is the Hibernation feature in Windows?

If you are not aware of the Hibernate feature, Hibernation is a power-saving state designed primarily for laptops (works great on desktop computers as well). While sleep mode puts your work and settings in memory (RAM) and draws a small amount of power, hibernation puts your open documents and programs on your hard disk and then turns off your computer. Of all the power-saving states in Windows, hibernation uses the least amount of power. On a laptop, use hibernation when you know that you won’t use your laptop for an extended period and won’t have an opportunity to charge the battery during that time.

Hibernate option in windows 7

Enable or disable hibernation in Windows 7

So if you are going to use this feature, then you need to enable it by doing a simple procedure as mentioned below:

Step 1: Open Command Prompt with Administrator rights. To open Command Prompt, type CMD in Start menu and then hit Ctrl + Shift + Enter to open the Command Prompt with Admin rights.

Step 2: Next, type the below command and hit enter:

powercfg /hibernate on

Hibernate command

Step 3: Type exit and hit Enter key to close the Command Prompt.

Step 4: If you can’t see the Hibernate option in the Start menu, then continue with the following tasks:

A. Type Power Options in Start menu and hit enter.

B. In the left pane, open the link labeled Change when the computer sleeps and then open the link Change advanced power settings.

Hybrid sleep

C. Under the Advanced Sleep options, expand the Sleep tree and turn off Hybrid Sleep.

D. Now go back to the Start menu to see the new Hibernate entry. That’s it!

How to enable Hibernate option in Windows 8, how to reduce Hibernation file size and create a keyboard shortcut to Hibernate option guide might also interest you.

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Comments

  1. It works! says

    The cmd option didnt work but the other one did tysm this actually does work and is useful because then your session gets restored

  8. mike says

    VERY NICE!
    that thing with “Hybrid sleep” solved the problem. it’s not mentioned on other sites.
    Thanks!

  10. Sandi K says

    Wow – thanks so much. You made this so easy. I could have spent hours trying to figure this all out. Kudos to you!!

  11. Shilpa says

    Thanks alot!!
    In my pc, control+shift+enter didn’t allowed me to switch to with administrator rights. However when I choose to disallow the setting of hybrid sleep by settimg it off, then, it worked.
    I didn’t understand why?
    I’m the only user who is using this dekstop.
    Don’t how to change it.
    But still, second option was of great help for me.
    So, Thanks a billion ton!!

  15. lightwrx says

    Third one of these I tried, this one actually worked and it didn’t have tons of blather I didn’t care about. 2 Bytes up! ;-)

  19. DominionDavis says

    Wow!!! This Stuf works 100% Thank you, imagine no one has ever solved this head ache for me 2 years now. Lots of Love from Mombasa, Kenya.

  21. Peters Owolabi says

    The second step was very much useful.

    Thanks a lot for putting this here for the world.

  24. Brian Bee says

    I’m not sure why the Windows 7 OS to hibernate is so difficult compared to XP, but because of your instructions I was able to make the modifications within a minute.

  29. Jose Martin says

    Thanks a lot, brother. I wasted an awful lot of time studying the Help and Support and downloading and installing a new driver for the video card as advised by the Help and Support, after the OS was reinstalled and I couldn’t find Hibernate in the Start Options thereafter. Your directions solved my problem in a second! Thank you SO very much.

  35. prateek agrawal says

    thanks bro very very………….much………………………………………..

  39. smruti says

    Thanks…!

    Its helpful….
    But still I don’t log off my laptop using hibernate function in windows 7.

    So can you help me please?

  44. admin says

    @ Manel
    Do you have enough free space on your Windows 7 drive? The free space must be at least as much as the size of your RAM.

  45. manel says

    I tried this but it didn’t work for me. it says “Hibernation failed with the following error: The request is not supported. An internal system component has disabled hibernation.”

    What should i do?

  46. Zach says

    Thanks a whole lot for posting this! Am decent with computers, but was having trouble with this. You’ve saved me, and a lot of my friends time, energy, and computer life. Really appreciate it!

  48. Zach says

    Thanks a whole lot! Know a decent amount about computers, but Windows 7 was wearing me out when I was trying to work my way through the Hibernation “maze”.
    Really appreciate it!

  54. admin says

    @ JC @ Kai
    Yes, enabling the Hibernate is quite a task in Windows 7. I am glad my guide helped you.

  55. JC says

    I couldn’t believe that it had to be this complicated – but it worked a treat – and really well laid out instructions and explanations – thanks a million

  60. Ron says

    never knew it was so easy to get the hibernation option to appear in the start menu… thanks!! Cheers! :)

  71. Matt says

    Thanks so much! I don’t know why things like this should be so confusing.
    Glad for knowledgeable people like you!

  81. John says

    I decided to check the power config first and turned off Hybrid sleep. This caused hibernation to work properly. Article was very helpful, Thanks.

  85. edgerlink says

    wau! that’s great finally the second option works best, I had hustled for location Hybrid sleep mode yet its not in my advance option for power in my laptop, THANKS MEN!

  90. ner0 says

    Fun fact:
    In my Windows 7 Ultimate (x64), foreign language (PT-PT), the setting “Allow hybrid sleep” is only enabled when set to “Off” and disabled when set to “On”, at least the option is only visible when hybrid mode is disabled. Meaning that after running “powercfg /hibernate on”, the hybrid sleep option is set to “On” by default yet “Hibernate is nowhere to be seen until I set hybrid sleep to “Off”.

  93. cena says

    thanx that was great.
    but why the command prompt commands shown above does not work on my computer?

  97. mateka00 says

    For those, whose computer restarts after hibernating:
    1. in cmd(run as admin): powercfg -devicequery wake_armed
    2. this command shows you, which devices are enabled to wake your machine up.
    3. After it just check these devices in the device manager and click right button->properties->power management->allow this device to wake the computer->disable it…
    And I also suggest you this article: http://forum.team-mediaportal.com/threads/solved-windows-7-pro-x64-sp1-hibernate-restarts-system-devcon-does-not-work.106718/
    Good luck!

  101. justaperson says

    Thank u so much!!!
    It really wored!!
    Your forum was one of the rare ones that gives the accurate info to the point

  109. bobby says

    Thanks so much for sharing this useful information…

    I have been wondering why I couldn’t see the hibernate entry on the start menu.

  113. James says

    Great and as people have said, good explanation. And my thanks go to you for you for your time in preparing it for others to use.
    If I could add one thing, between step C and D, in order to see the changes you’ll need to press the APPLY button at the bottom. I say this, since I was checking the Start Menu and nothing changed, then I saw the APPLY button and voila! There it was.
    So thanks again, and preciate your efforts.

  115. Jack says

    Just dropped a comment to say thank you very much. I wonder why it was disabled in the first place though.

  120. CHETANYA says

    I went through many pages offering many weird solutions……none solved my problem b4 hittn ths page….thx alot

  128. Dylan S. says

    I read this a few months ago, and after a frustrating trip through the instructions, couldn’t get it to work.
    I don’t know where I went wrong, perhaps it was that I was just getting used to Windows 7… but I missed that last part, with the Hybrid Sleep option.
    Thankfully I researched this page again, and found exactly what I needed!
    Thank you for this post!

  131. harshav says

    it really works…..my hibernate option has started appearing now……….thans for the help

  133. Michael says

    thanks a LOT!!! The second option was the one that worked for me. God Bless you.

  137. Gayan says

    superb great post i was looking for the way to enable hibernate feature and was really strucked but this post helped me to solve my problem thanks again.

  140. drWoo says

    Very thanks for this! It worked on my Win 7 pro 64 upgraded from Vista Business 64.

  146. Daniel says

    Thanks for your tip. Until I visited this page, I didn’t even realize the Hibernate options wasn’t present in my Start Menu and the Desktop Alt-F4 window. Before I just couldn’t get my system to go into Hibernate mode. I haven’t tested it yet. But I suspect it will work now.

  158. Brian says

    I have known about this methord of turning on Hibernation for some time, but I have not been able to find a way to keep the machine turned on for more than 5 seconds ofter trying to hibernate. If you can come up with a way to do that I would be a happy man..

  160. Jules says

    Thanks so much! It really helped! Especially since after having to reinstall windows 7 I forgot how I even enabled hibernate ;P

  161. Chris says

    I followed a different follow-through and it wasn’t specific enough. I didn’t know about the administrator rights thing.

    This one helped! THANKS!

  170. MK says

    Thanks, I’ve been searching for this info all over the web .. they all have the first part only, which clearly did not work for me. Thanks again :)

  177. Norry Zinger says

    MY daughter’s laptop switched itself off after initiating step two above and i cannot get it to switch on again. Any suggestions what to try please??

  180. Angel says

    For those who still after going through with these steps dont get to see the hibernation option, try changing your computer power option to Balanced, since thats the main profile you change. Or change all of the 3 profiles in the advanced power settings to enable hibernation on the 3 power consumption profiles.

  183. Drew says

    followed cmd instructions. Got back: The request is not supported.The following items are preventing hibernation on this system. There are one or more legacy drivers installed: Aten1pt
    I had hibernation and sleep at first but some update turned them off.

  184. Saidur Rahman says

    Hi
    Its really helpful document. Thanks a lot. I expect more help from you next time.

    –Rana

  185. Mark says

    Thank you so much! this really worked. It’s kind of lame how windows is so hard to use lol. Have to look up these silly instructions to get what we want!

  186. vivek says

    my laptop gets hibernate after hitting hibernate but when i power on then it doesn’t resumes then when i press ctrl+alt+del then it resumes. pls give me a solution………….

  189. admin says

    @ Sid

    You need to have the admin rights to perform this task. So make sure that you have opened Command Prompt as Administrator.

  191. sid says

    when i tried the above procedure..my pc says..u don’t hav the permission to enable or disable hibernate option

  199. Gene says

    Windows 7

    My wife’s computer would wake up from hibernation often. After a while I noticed when the telephone rang, the computer would wake up! Our son, the computer expert, adjusted the bios accordingly and it solved the problem.

  200. admin says

    @Imran
    Please make sure that you are opening the Command Prompt with administrator rights.

  203. Prashant Mathur says

    Use Ctrl(right)+Shift(right)+Enter .. then u’ll get the administrative rights …

  204. wilfred says

    windows 7 64bit same problem of dissapearing hibernate option. your trick works here as well.
    well hidden option :-(
    run cmd in admin mode: put shortcut on desktop and rightclick-properties-shortcut-advanced-‘run as admin’

  205. Avid says

    Thanks a tonne!
    Simple and easy to understand.
    Did this in a minute and a half….
    Great!

  206. Sean says

    Ctrl + Shift + Enter does nothing. I still don’t have the rights to switch on hibernation, despite the fact that mine is the sole account on the computer and therefore must have administrative rights.

  209. chiru says

    Yes the much needed “Hibernate” feature works superb now on my pc, and very nice explanations. For eight months I have been using W 7 RC candidate, w/o hibernate feature. The standby feature makes the pc start even with slightest mouse movement, or accidental keybrd press. Thanks for the post.

  210. David Braganza says

    My God, maybe Microsoft should contract you out for their technical support. They could not even tell me how to enable hibernation in windows 7 64. They led me throught the cmd entry, but your site took me further to correct the issue. Thank you sooo much!

  213. Curtis says

    Thank you so much for this! After Windows 7 updated, I lost my hibernate feature. I’m so glad it’s back!

  217. Duimengo says

    Thanks for the guide, the seccond part was excellent… However appearently in my cmd, it’s called “powercfg -h on” instead of “powercfg /hibernate on”. Just a little notice. Thanks anyway

  218. Photon says

    Thank you so much for this guide. It helped me get it back! I needed it because I was going to move my computer upstairs, and I still had work on it to get done. I just can’t afford a shutdown, nor sleep is possible, for I’m pulling the plug (duh).

    Thanks again :D

  220. Joel LaRocco says

    I am trying to set my Win 7 to hibernate, so if the mouse is moved it will not come out of hibernation.

    My Win Vista was pretty simple to set up but I am having trouble finding the solution.

    Thanks

  222. Gabi Eskinazi says

    Man! CONGRATULATIONS!! Even B. Gates can’t explain it better. Suffering for months and a genius explanation. THANK YOU!

  224. Johnson Yip says

    Thanks for the help. It is strange that 7 makes Hibernate option off on the start menu by default, and requires the user to turn off Hybird sleep, so hibernate is on.

  226. Davion says

    Hi there,

    I tried to execute the powercfg command. However even after running the command as an Administrator, it gives me a message saying that I do not have the permission to make changes to the power configuration. I am having a 7000 build.
    Please advise.
    Regards,
    Davion.

  227. Chris says

    Thanks for this. Even Windows 7 ‘Help and Support’ doesn’t cover this, which I was surprised by.

  228. mike d says

    I have the RC candidate installed on a desktop and just upgraded a dell xps 1330 from vista to 7. I can’t get either to ever wake up from hibernation. Both worked great with VISTA hibernation. Other than that 7 is nice, certainly not great.

  233. Connor says

    Hibernate still does not appear in the start menu, even after typing “powercfg /hibernate on” into the command prompt and disabling hybrid sleep.

  235. tk malah says

    Great job man for Win 7 the second option worked great i thought the old school way with vista -h on CMD would work but it didnt guess Win 7 wants u too be more user friendly CLICK CLICK no more typing what u want ! :)
    THANKS thou!

  239. mitch says

    I did this and hibernate appeared in the start menu. I clicked it and my system did hibernate – for a few minutes. Then it started again.

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