Windows Vista: Hibernate option disappeared!

March 7, 2008 by Indrajit Chatterjee

Just to jot down some notes about this strange problem that happens from time to time in my laptop running Windows Vista – for people who might find the suggestion using search engines from here, and more so for me to look back when it happens the next time.

How it happens

Among other reasons (which I am not so much aware of) you may find that the Hibernate option that was there in your Start Menu has suddenly disappeared after you did a Disk Cleanup activity from Accessories > System Tools – if you had chosen to delete off old “hibernate data files” (or something which will read like that) among other stuff that you decided to remove.

How to get it back

1. Open a Command Prompt window from Start Menu > Accessories using Administrative privileges (”Run as Administrator” option using right click on the Command Prompt menu).

2. Type powercfg.exe /hibernate on

3. The prompt should be back without any output. The Hibernate option should be back in your Start Menu now.

4. Wait for the mythical Vista Service Pack 1 to arrive to fix the problem permanently.

Cheers!

Posted in Popular IT | Tagged Troubleshooting, Windows Vista | 35 Comments

35 Responses

on April 12, 2008 at 7:30 am | Reply Mark

omg i <3 you
on April 13, 2008 at 4:07 pm | Reply dobrin

thank you ! ! !
on April 30, 2008 at 7:57 am | Reply Zippy

Thanks a million! you helped me so much!
on July 6, 2008 at 9:05 pm | Reply sh0x

thanks, great!!!
on July 29, 2008 at 8:17 am | Reply kasia

amazin!! thanks!
on July 30, 2008 at 2:20 pm | Reply David Koster

I had the same issue in WinXP. Reinstalling SP# corrected the problem.
on August 15, 2008 at 6:12 pm | Reply Ranvir

thnx, the option is back
on August 16, 2008 at 10:57 pm | Reply Sérgio Busato

Perfect!
on August 24, 2008 at 5:22 pm | Reply Dilish

Cool!!!
Thanks man!
on August 26, 2008 at 8:52 am | Reply Aatif Ali

Thanks a ton. It’s perfect
on September 8, 2008 at 6:53 am | Reply dkm

Wow. Such a clear and simple solution to a vexing problem. I am glad you ranked high in my google search. Thanks for taking the time to publish your findings!
on September 19, 2008 at 11:56 am | Reply Manish

Thanx dude. also learnt abt new feature of vista. i.e. running cmd prompt as administrator.
on October 4, 2008 at 8:06 pm | Reply Prabhakar

thanks buddy for ur help can you help i have got some more problems
on October 5, 2008 at 2:07 pm | Reply Indrajit Chatterjee

Prabhakar,
Sure – I will be glad to help – let me know what your problems are?
Cheers
IC
on October 11, 2008 at 12:14 pm | Reply adam

THANKS!!
on October 17, 2008 at 6:29 am | Reply Maureen

thank you so much.
I though I was losing my mind.
I’m learning graphics and often need to hibernate in the middle of creating. I didn’t know what happened to it (I did do a disc cleanup not too long ago, because someone told me it would free up space, but failed to tell me with Vista it would take away hibernate feature.)

Again, thank you for helping others like me.
on October 29, 2008 at 1:22 am | Reply anon

hey, thanks a lot. great help.
on November 9, 2008 at 12:54 pm | Reply Mike

Thankyou!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
on December 14, 2008 at 1:06 pm | Reply Julius

that was awesome!

Hibernate’s back, I’m soooo happy. haha
on December 22, 2008 at 3:07 am | Reply Tom

Many thanks…
on December 26, 2008 at 11:16 am | Reply prateek

thanx a lot
on December 29, 2008 at 7:03 pm | Reply Christy

This is reli cool!!!!!!!!!!!it appears in a sec!!!! thanx a bunch!
on January 14, 2009 at 8:15 am | Reply Prelenque

Oh gosh, thanks so much, you are aweeesome! Thanks thanks thanks! and yeah, Service Pack 1 didn’t fix this -.- XD Thanks
on January 24, 2009 at 5:52 am | Reply Sammonk

Thanx man, am in awe!!!! Thanx a mill
on January 29, 2009 at 1:23 pm | Reply Desire

thanks man, you are the man, thumbs up
on January 31, 2009 at 1:13 pm | Reply ex machina

Wow! excellent. thanx much.
on February 14, 2009 at 3:45 pm | Reply cyrus

thanks. I have had more quirkly problems with vista, than any other microsoft OS.

I think mine disappeared after running disk cleanup. I have sp1 and sp1 did not solve this problem.
on March 16, 2009 at 5:35 pm | Reply jtaibo

Thanks a lot guy!!!
on March 22, 2009 at 5:35 am | Reply Abhay

Thank you for the above help. It was really helpful and it works.
on April 7, 2009 at 10:56 pm | Reply cory

TY so much, I was losing my mind thinking I had some sort of virus!! This was easy and it worked!!
on April 8, 2009 at 12:36 am | Reply Amin

Thank you so much!!!
on April 28, 2009 at 5:54 pm | Reply F D

Okay, Vista’s mystical SP1 doesn’t have a fix. But you did. Thank you ever so much!
on May 21, 2009 at 2:50 pm | Reply blacknight

thanks can i ask you again if another problem appears in vista?can i add you in my skype account?
on May 30, 2009 at 4:35 pm | Reply Amol

Thanx for a perfect and instant solution!!! cheers!!
on June 16, 2009 at 11:43 pm | Reply Clay

thx man..dis was really annoying to me till u came along