Hibernate Function

[Keith]

Am I correct in thinking that when I Hibernate my XP Pro laptop, the entire
contents of the RAM are saved to hard disk and the machine shut down as if I
was performing a full shut down - the only difference being that it has
saved the contents of RAM so it knows how to start it back up?

I am just curious as to whether Hibernate is functionally any different to
Shut Down other than this?

Will it consume power etc. if I hibernate for a long time and is there any
risk of the laptop coming out of hibernation on it's own in my case?

Thanks

 

[John Barnett MVP]

You are correct in your assumption that hibernate saves the entire contents
of ram to the hard drive before shutting down the machine.
While hibernate is useful I personally am not in the habit of using it
continually. I will use it if i want to shut down my machine quickly when i
know i will not be using the machine for 5 or 6 hours or maybe overnight. I
have also used hibernate regularly for over a week, but i always like to
shut down fully every so often.
For my sins i run a quadruple boot machine (win xp home, win xp pro, windows
server 2003, and longhorn) If i hibernate i am unable to access the other
operating systems, i.e., boot to them, without first recovering from
hibernation and then restarting so it does have its drawbacks.
Once the machine is in hibernation the machine is *off* it doesn't consume
any power and as such, in this state, there is no way it will come out of
hibernation on its own.

 

[Alex Nichol]

Am I correct in thinking that when I Hibernate my XP Pro laptop, the entire
contents of the RAM are saved to hard disk and the machine shut down as if I
was performing a full shut down - the only difference being that it has
saved the contents of RAM so it knows how to start it back up?

I am just curious as to whether Hibernate is functionally any different to
Shut Down other than this?

That is right. From the POV of the hardware it has been fully powered
down.

Will it consume power etc. if I hibernate for a long time and is there any
risk of the laptop coming out of hibernation on it's own in my case?

It will consume a tiny amount with some laptops, if you initiate the
hibernation by shutting the lid, with Windows set as 'if I push the
power button - Hibernate'. This is convenient, but needs enough
standby power use for the opening of the lid to be noticed and trigger
the power up to reboot. On mine the life in this mode is suggested as
five days; if fully 'powered off' 60 days.