Hibernation

Hibernation is a power-saving state that computer systems may enter during periods of inactivity. It is a feature built into most modern computer operating systems that causes the computer to save all of its data to its disk drive, and then shut down the system. This allows the system to be quickly powered on again, without the user needing to go through the slow boot up process.

Hibernation differs from the other popular power-saving states like standby and sleep, as it completely shuts off the computer’s power, and thus no power is used while in the hibernation state. This is useful in applications such as servers, where it is important that the computer not be running to conserve energy and reduce running costs.

In most modern operating systems, the user can manually put the computer into the hibernation state, or the OS can be set to enter the hibernation state after a certain period of inactivity. It should be noted that while in the hibernation state, any open applications are closed so, if the user needs to restore some application, they will need to restart the computer and open the applications.

Hibernation can also be used to allow a computer to enter a low-power state during periods of inactivity, which can improve the computer’s performance since it is free to use its processor and RAM to cache the current session and data for quicker access when powered back up.

Overall, hibernation is a great feature if you wish to save energy and reduce running costs, or to increase your computer’s performance.