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!

omg i <3 you
Mystery solved. Thanks much.
thank you ! ! !
Thanks a million! you helped me so much!
thanks, great!!!
amazin!! thanks!
I had the same issue in WinXP. Reinstalling SP# corrected the problem.
thnx, the option is back
Perfect!
Cool!!!
Thanks man!
Thanks a ton.
It’s perfect
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!
Thanx dude. also learnt abt new feature of vista. i.e. running cmd prompt as administrator.
thanks buddy for ur help can you help i have got some more problems
Prabhakar,
Sure – I will be glad to help – let me know what your problems are?
Cheers
IC
THANKS!!
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.
hey, thanks a lot. great help.
Thankyou!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
that was awesome!
Hibernate’s back, I’m soooo happy. haha
Many thanks…
thanx a lot
This is reli cool!!!!!!!!!!!it appears in a sec!!!! thanx a bunch!
Oh gosh, thanks so much, you are aweeesome! Thanks thanks thanks!
and yeah, Service Pack 1 didn’t fix this -.- XD Thanks
Thanx man, am in awe!!!! Thanx a mill
thanks man, you are the man, thumbs up
Wow! excellent. thanx much.
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.
Thanks a lot guy!!!
Thank you for the above help. It was really helpful and it works.
TY so much, I was losing my mind thinking I had some sort of virus!! This was easy and it worked!!
Thank you so much!!!
Okay, Vista’s mystical SP1 doesn’t have a fix. But you did. Thank you ever so much!
thanks can i ask you again if another problem appears in vista?can i add you in my skype account?
Thanx for a perfect and instant solution!!! cheers!!
thx man..dis was really annoying to me till u came along
Thanx man!
it didnt work….help :S
it said that i dont have the permission to put hibernate back on!!!! what to do
Perhaps you don’t have administrative privilege on the account that you’re using to log on to Windows. Please check that.
cheers dude!!!!!!!!!
u’r the man !!! thanks a million ..
Does anyone knows how to do this but for windows 7?
Many many Thanks Indrajit ! I’ve got back the ‘hibernation’ option once again.
Thanks a LOT!!
I was try to find out how to get it back with the “Help and Support” thing, but obviously did not help at all.
thanx a million
Help I tried it…exactly as you said and it still did not work! Please help!
Thanks a lot! you have been really helpful!
Hi Indrajit,
Thanks a lot. Do you think MS doesn’t want to encourage us to use hibernation? And then, why?
thanks for the help, solved the “do not have priveleges” error that was popping up when trying to run cmd from run option. Thanks again.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
my hibernate option disappeared when i did a disk cleanup and chose the ‘delete hibernate files’ or something. thanks much!!
[...] Windows Vista: Hibernate option disappeared! « Thoughts On The Spot [...]
thank ya man.. it worked
I ran command prompt with administrator privledges and got this output:
“Hibernation failed with the following error: There is not enough space on the disk.
The following items are preventing hibernation of this system.
The system could not create the hibernation file. The specific error code is 0xc000007f.”
Any ideas what that could mean? I have 1.7G of space left on my harddrive…I can’t image that the hibernation file is 2G large. Am I wrong?
Please help, thanks muchly!!
Thanks a ton !!
How to solve the same problem in xp ??
Hi I tried this, and here’s the message I got:
There are one or more legacy drivers installed:
VgaSave
An internal system component has disabled hibernation.
What do I do now?
Thanks in advance!
dmmm your my hero man tks a lot!
Thanks very much, worked like a charm! My hibernate option reappeared instantly!