do i need hibernate on a laptop that i use all the time?

If the computer is never used on battery then you can turn off hibernation.

Hibernation is useful when traveling to prevent data loss.

The challenge would be remembering to turn on hibernation when using the battery.


Before the battery is discharged the settings can enable sleep or hibernation.

Sleep >>>>> data saved to RAM >>>>> discharged battery results in loss of data saved to RAM

Hibernate >>>>> data saved to drive >>>>> discharged battery should result in preservation of data saved to the hibernation file on the drive.





Sleep: Press the Sleep key on the keyboard, or click Sleep from the Power menu (Windows 10), or under the Shut down menu in (Windows 8) to put the computer in sleep mode. Closing the display panel on a notebook can also put the notebook in sleep mode. Sleep mode saves the state of all open applications to memory, then powers down both the display panel and hard disk drive. Only enough power is used to maintain the data in the memory. Restoring from sleep mode happens quickly, in most cases in a matter of seconds. Sleep mode is useful when you need to pause the computer for a short time. However, in a notebook, maintaining the power to the memory modules can drain a battery if the notebook is not plugged in.


Hibernate: Click Hibernate (if available) from the Power menu (Windows 10), or under the Shut down menu (Windows 8) to put the computer in hibernate mode. Hibernate saves the state of all open applications to the hard disk, then completely powers off the computer. The computer consumes no power while in hibernate mode. When you restart the computer, the previous state of all open applications is restored. Restarting from hibernate mode might take longer than restarting from sleep mode. Use hibernate when you do not need your computer for an extended period of time.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c03383935

I never use hibernation on all my PCs which have SSDs. I disable hibernation - see Enable or Disable Hibernate in Windows 10

This removes the large hiberfil.sys file and turns off fast start up which isn't needed with a SSD. I put PCs to sleep if not using them for a few hours else turn them off.

Steve C said:

I never use hibernation on all my PCs which have SSDs. I disable hibernation - see Enable or Disable Hibernate in Windows 10

This removes the large hiberfil.sys file and turns off fast start up which isn't needed with a SSD. I put PCs to sleep if not using them for a few hours else turn them off.

This is exactly what I do on my desktop computer that has an SSD.

On my laptops, which are non-SSD, but plugged in 95% of the time, I normally put them to sleep and do not have Hibernate enabled. I do however, always SAVE ANY WORK etc prior to putting them to sleep. They only get rebooted about once a week or so. I know that I could also use the reduced hibernation option but in my case I see no need for it!

I use a Desktop and I rarely switch it off or set it in sleep or hibernate, when I am finished for the day I simply turn off the screen manually. (I have a setup to blank the screen after Two hours, if i forget), this gives me instant on capability should I need the system at any time day or night, I can also always access the system remotely locally or from elsewhere in he world.

My applications all have any options that they have to auto save the current active content, (things like my main application - Lightroom - are designed to survive a hard shutdown and you do not need to ever save a file anyway due to the way it works. Power failure is covered by a UPS system that has built in auto parachute shutdown (the system stays running for a while and then performs a controlled shutdown if the supply is off for a longer time that the occasional Blip that we get here , once a year is more than normal )

Megahertz said:

Why don't you install a small SSD (120G) for windows and programs and replace the ODD drive with a HDD caddy?
You will have the speed of a SSD and the space of a HDD at low cost.

I also highly recommend this, you will wonder why you didn't do it before!