Sleep, Shut Down, and Hibernate – What is the difference?

By Jeandre de Beer / Kim Komando

We have already discussed whether or not you really need to shut down your computer at night. If you haven’t seen it, click here.

One of the big reasons people don’t turn their computer off regularly is that it’s so slow to start up again.

That’s why other power-saving options exist that are faster.

I’m sure you’ve seen the Sleep and Hibernate options. But now Windows 8 also has Fast Boot and Hybrid Shutdown built in.

And then there are high-speed solid-state hard drives that can make a big difference.

If your head is spinning at the possibilities, don’t worry; it isn’t as bad as you think.

Since not everyone has Windows 8 or a solid-state hard drive, let’s take a look at the more universal Sleep and Hibernate first.

SLEEP

Sleep is the older option, so more people are comfortable using it. Plus, on some computers this is the only option.

When you put your computer into Sleep mode, it’s like pausing a DVD. Your computer stops exactly where you were.

It grabs your open files, folders and programs and puts them into your computer’s RAM.

Your processor, hard drive, graphics system and everything else are turned off, or put on minimum power. When you turn the computer back on, it loads up your information from RAM and is ready to go almost instantly.

Of course, your RAM will still use power to remember your data. And if power goes out, all your work is lost. I hope you saved!

Since desktops are always plugged in, sudden power loss isn’t a huge worry.

However, a laptop may not always be connected. If you use Sleep on an unplugged laptop, it could eventually spell trouble.

That’s why there’s Hibernate.

HIBERNATE

Unlike Sleep, Hibernate saves your information to the hard drive, then it shuts down everything, just like turning off the computer.

Hibernate won’t drain your laptop’s battery and it doesn’t care about power loss, so that’s good. However, conventional hard drives are much, much slower at transferring information than RAM.

That means it takes longer to start up from Hibernate mode than Sleep mode. It is still faster than a traditional start up though.

HYBRID SLEEP

There is also a little-known third option. It’s called Hybrid Sleep or Safe Sleep. Like the name implies, it combines Sleep and Hibernate.

Your open programs and work are saved to RAM and the hard drive. If your computer doesn’t lose power overnight, it stays in Sleep mode.

If you lose power for some reason, Hibernate kicks in.

To activate Hybrid Sleep, go to Control Panel >>Hardware and Sounds>>Power Options. Choose “Change plan settings” under your selected plan and then “Change Advanced power settings.” Turn on Hybrid Sleep.

To use Hybrid Sleep once it’s turned on, just choose “Sleep” as normal.

This feature is only available in Windows 7 and later. Not all desktops will offer Hybrid Sleep or Hibernate.

As for Macs, Safe Sleep is turned on automatically. Click the Apple logo at the top of the screen and select “Sleep” to activate it, or just shut your laptop lid.

WINDOWS 8

With Windows 8, Microsoft decided to speed things up a little, so it enables Fast Boot and Hybrid Shutdown by default. So, when you choose the Shutdown option, you’re really choosing Hybrid Shutdown.

This works something like Hibernate, but it doesn’t save your open programs and files. It saves other parts of the Windows system to your hard drive to make booting up again faster with Fast Boot.

If you don’t care about leaving your programs open, then shutting your computer down in Windows 8 is both the fastest and the best power-saving option.

To keep your open programs when you start up again, however, you can still use the Sleep option. You can also go into the Windows 8 power settings in Control Panel to enable good old Hibernate.

Handy trick: Because of the way Windows 8 handles shutdown now, shutting the computer down and booting it back up again won’t fix many of the problems it used to. Instead, you need to choose the Restart option to get a “cold boot.” 

SOLID-STATE DRIVES

Many laptops and upper range desktops have solid-state drives installed. If you want more details on the benefits and drawbacks of solid-state vs. conventional hard drives, click here.

The bottom line, however, is that SSDs are much faster than conventional drives and can make your computer boot up in half the time or less.

So, a computer with an SSD booting up is just about as fast as a computer with a conventional drive starting from Hibernate. A Windows 8 computer with an SSD it is about as fast as booting an older computer from Sleep.

Plus, SSDs draw a lot less power in general.

In other words, if you have a computer with an SSD, don’t worry about power saving features. Figure out what option you like best – shut down, hibernate, sleep, leaving the computer on – and go with that.