Hibernation is a term often referred to portable computers and laptops. But if you're using Windows Vista, it doesn't matter if you're using a portable computer or not. Hibernation will be a term for your computer to use. This means that Windows XP has control over the power of your computer's disk and its other peripheral devices.
Power Management Features of Windows Vista
There are two power management features in Windows Vista. That would be hibernate and standby.
Hibernate. What this feature does is that it saves the look of your desktop as well as the opened documents and files in your hard disk. Before it turns down the power of your computer, it will have to create a hidden system file first and save all the information needed, so that when you turn on the power of your computer, documents and files are exactly the same as you left them a while ago.
Standby. Unlike the tricky process of hibernating, standby serves its simple purpose. And that is to lessen your computer's power consumption by not supplying power to hardware components that are not being used. Take for example, you went away for 20 minutes and you've set up the Standby mode. What this feature would do is to cut off the power of your hard disk but maintain the power of your computer's memory.
How to Enable Hibernation
Follow the simple steps below to enable hibernation:
1)Ensure that you have administrative privileges or else you can't enable hibernation.
2)Go to Start and type “cmd” in the Search box.
3)Once you see the list of searches, right-click on Command Prompt then proceed in clicking Run as Administrator.
4)Click on Continue as soon as you User Account Control prompts you.
5)Type “powercfg.exe/hibernate on” and press Enter.
6)To exit the Command Prompt, simply type Exit and then press the Enter key.
However, there are some points to consider in hibernation. If you are using Windows Vista Enterprise, you cannot put the computer into hibernation after you use the Disk Cleanup Wizard. To solve this issue, you must re-do the enabling of hibernation.
Why choose to Disable Hibernation
You might find it funny that there are a lot of people who opt to disable hibernation than enable them. And unfortunately, they do make a point. That's because in enabling hibernation, a huge system file named “hiberfil.sys” is created somewhere in your system partition. It may take around 11 GB disk space and that's huge. Thus, sometimes it's just wise to remove this file by disabling hibernation. Secondly, it has been found out that hibernation can cause virtual machines to not respond properly. This can be very irritating to users especially those who value time so much.
How to Disable Hibernation
1) Ensure that you have administrative privileges or else you can't disable hibernation.
2) Go to Start and type cmd in the Search box.
3) Once you see the list of searches, right-click on Command Prompt then proceed in clicking Run as Administrator.
4) Click on Continue as soon as you are User Account Control prompts you.
5) Type “powercfg.exe/hibernate off” and press Enter.
6) To exit the Command Prompt, simply type Exit and then press the Enter key.
Enable or Disable Vista Hibernation 
