Windows “Sleep” versus “Hibernate”?

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I am currently running Vista 32 bit but considering upgrading to Windows 7 64 bit.
In the past I have always completley shut the computer off every night, but lately I have taken to putting it to “Sleep” instead.
This is way better of course because instead of doing a cold boot every morning, it is ready to go in seconds, and anything that was left open is still up and running.
My real question; is there any downside to doing this?
If I understand correctly, the whole system goes into a low power state, fans and drives stop, and everthing goes dormant, screen output shuts off.
I notice when I start up again the cpu core temps are down to 28 to 33 C, and the chassis gets quite cool to the touch.
How does “hibernate” differ from “sleep” mode?

Thanks,
rstew

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You are correct in your understanding of Sleep. Whe you hibernate a PC, Windows writes the current system state to a location on a hard drive and then completely powers off. When you power the PC back on line, it restores system state from the hard drive so you can continue where you left off. This is quicker than a complete boot but longer than a restore from Sleep.

Jerry

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My real question; is there any downside to doing this?

None at all, provided everything is working well.

Hibernation is a great energy saver alternative to “always on”, the only tradeoff would be the space requirement
needed on the drive in which the hibernation file is stored.
The hibernation file can be several gigabytes in size. I doubt that would be much of a factor on todays large drives.
But most people are still using a single primary drive with all of their data clumped together on it.

Sleep is quite innovative too in that you can have the system wake to perform specific tasks, then go back to sleep afterward.
That’s provided everything to do with sleep function is functioning normally. For some it’s tricky setting it up and especially maintaining it.

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A question about sleep. Doesn’t it require power to the laptop as the battery is still being used? I appreciate it will take longer to flatten, so as long as it isn’t sleeping too long it shouldn’t be a problem. But batteries being batteries….:D

Eliminate spare time: start programming PowerShell

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A question about sleep. Doesn’t it require power to the laptop as the battery is still being used? I appreciate it will take longer to flatten, so as long as it isn’t sleeping too long it shouldn’t be a problem. But batteries being batteries….:D

Yep. Your machine is in standby, just like your TV or video recorder. Only the high current consumers are powered down – the computer is still running. Hibernation, on the other hand, is like a normal shutdown, except that the contents of RAM are copied to your HD. When you restart, it’s just copied right back into RAM.

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I like that freshly booted Windows smell in the morning:D

I also diconnect the AC power to the computer and router at night (except for scan nights) w/ a remote surgeprotector. One less time space for a lightening strike to take out my equipment and Windows always likes to be rebooted.

🍻

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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Thanks for all the comments.
I have been using the Sleep mode quite a bit lately when finished for the night, and it seems to work pretty well.
I really like the fact that restarting in the morning is like maybe 10 seconds, including the time it takies to enter the password.
Still do a full shutdown when we are going to be away for a few days or more.
Just a matter of your preferences I guess.
The bios is set to stay off in case of a power failure, so hopefully any power interruption will result in a complete shutdown until next full reboot.

Cheers,
rstew

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One more point – it’s fine to use Hibernate routinely, but Windows benefits from a proper shutdown and restart once in a while. With Hibernate, any errors or other nasties in RAM are preserved when you restart.

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One more point – it’s fine to use Hibernate routinely, but Windows benefits from a proper shutdown and restart once in a while. With Hibernate, any errors or other nasties in RAM are preserved when you restart.

Its not as important in Windows 7 or Windows 8 as it used to be for Windows XP. I use Sleep in both my Windows Desktop and Windows 8 laptop and only reboot when required by Windows Update or software removal and haven’t seen any ill effects.

Jerry

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