Hibernate Mode

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What Does Hibernate Mode Mean?

Hibernate mode is a power management mode that powers down the computer while maintaining its previous state. In this mode, the current state of the system is saved from the random access memory (RAM) to the hard drive before shutting the system down. When the user turns the system back on, the computer resumes its pre-hibernation state.

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Techopedia Explains Hibernate Mode

This mode saves power better than sleep mode because the device is completely powered down and therefore uses no electrical power, just as if the device is switched off. Sometimes, using this mode can cause faulty operations of some programs upon restarting due to some problems with the hibernation software; it may also terminate connections to peripheral devices. Hibernate mode is usually compared to sleep mode but sleep mode simply powers down the processing functions of the device while still consuming power to maintain the contents of the RAM for an instantaneous wake up. So while sleep mode only saves power, hibernate mode totally cuts off consumption.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology expert

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.