Delete Hiberfil.sys in Windows XP before defragmenting

[Egaladeist]

Hmmm... hadn't thought about doing this first.

If you use the Windows XP's Hibernation feature on your laptop, you may want to delete the Hiberfil.sys file from the hard disk before defragmenting. When you put your computer in hibernation, Windows XP writes all memory content to the Hiberfil.sys file before shutting down the system. Then, when you turn your computer back on, the OS uses the Hiberfil.sys file to put everything back into memory, and the computer resumes where it left off. However, Windows XP leaves the Hiberfil.sys file on the hard disk, even though it's no longer needed.

http://forums.winxpcentral.com/showthread.php?t=14867
WinXPcentral - Delete Hiberfil.sys in Windows XP before defragmenting

kinda defeats the purpose of defraging when everything gets restored the way it was.

[zencoder]

Originally posted here by Egaladeist
http://forums.winxpcentral.com/showthread.php?t=14867
WinXPcentral - Delete Hiberfil.sys in Windows XP before defragmenting

kinda defeats the purpose of defraging when everything gets restored the way it was.

No, not true. The "everything" that "gets restored" is does not include the filesystem, with a few possible small exceptions. It's going to containt all of the information on the RAM and system state, and some other data. So if you where to delete the hiberfile.sys from a disk while the OS was offline...that is, put XP into hibernate, power up with BartPE or a Live Linux disc, mount the XP disk and delete the file, then reboot back into XP...besides some complaining to XP that the hibernation state files are missing (and maybe a checkdsk before the boot is complete), XP should come back online as if it had been powered off without the shutdown sequence.

Please don't take this as gospel...it's been a long time since I messed with it hibernation recovery and such...but this is how it works if I remember properly.