{"id":23829,"date":"2021-04-26T13:27:09","date_gmt":"2021-04-26T07:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/198.58.113.91\/blog\/?p=23829"},"modified":"2023-08-09T23:13:12","modified_gmt":"2023-08-09T17:43:12","slug":"move-hiberfil-sys-hibernation-another-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/move-hiberfil-sys-hibernation-another-drive\/","title":{"rendered":"Can I move Hibernation file (hiberfil.sys) to another drive?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When you hibernate your computer, the system dumps the entire memory contents to a file named <code>hiberfil.sys<\/code> in the system root folder. It&#8217;s a hidden &amp; system file whose default size is 40 percent of total physical memory (RAM) on a Windows 10 computer. The fast startup feature also uses hibernation technology and the hiberfil.sys file.<\/p>\n<p>If the physical memory on our computer is 16 GB, the default size of hiberfil.sys would be 6.4 GB. Many users, especially those who use a small-capacity SSD drive for the Windows partition, may be wondering if they can move <code>hiberfil.sys<\/code> from the system root folder to a different drive (like moving the <code>pagefile.sys<\/code>) to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/free-up-hard-disk-space-windows\/\">free up disk space<\/a> on the system drive.<!--more--><\/p>\n<h2>Can you move hiberfil.sys to another drive?<\/h2>\n<p>Moving hiberfil.sys to a different partition or drive is not possible.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s because the miniature file system drivers built into Windows boot files can only locate files in the root directory and load them into memory. Only during or after the system resumes from hibernation, the full file system drivers are loaded. The miniature file system driver can&#8217;t look at subdirectories or other drive letters, and it doesn&#8217;t understand mount points, hardlink, junctions, or the Windows registry.<\/p>\n<p>Here is an old article by Raymond Chen of Microsoft that explains why relocating hiberfil.sys is not possible.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/docs.microsoft.com\/en-us\/previous-versions\/technet-magazine\/cc137769(v=msdn.10)?redirectedfrom=MSDN\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Windows Confidential: The File System Paradox<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The article is several years old, and although we have an improved boot configuration since Windows Vista, moving the file is still not possible. There is no way to make Windows dump hiberfil.sys to a location that&#8217;s different from the system root.<\/p>\n<p><em>In Windows Vista or higher, you may be able to create a <a href=\"https:\/\/social.technet.microsoft.com\/Forums\/windows\/en-US\/b5baa5bf-bdb2-4c9e-8795-1441f59700a0\/relocate-hiberfilsys\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">boot configuration entry<\/a> that points to hiberfil.sys using the boot loader <code>\\Windows\\system32\\winresume.exe<\/code>. But this would not change the location where Windows saves hiberfil.sys. Secondly, hiberfil.sys is only valid if the last computer shutdown was hibernation, and the <\/em><em>file is invalidated after a resume. So, there is no point in creating the custom BCD entry pointing to the hibernation file. But yes, it&#8217;s a slight improvement over the earlier Windows Operating Systems.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"qt\">\n<h3>Relocate hiberfil.sys using the registry?<\/h3>\n<p>Recently, I came across a registry edit circulating on the internet, claiming to relocate hiberfil.sys to a different path. It suggests editing the Power Management registry value and setting the <code>hiberfil.sys<\/code> path under the following registry key:<\/p>\n<pre>HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Control\\BackupRestore\\FilesNotToBackup<\/pre>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-23831\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/hiberfil-sys-registry-path-change.png\" alt=\"hibernation file move using regedit\" width=\"713\" height=\"279\" \/><\/p>\n<h4>That wouldn&#8217;t work at all! Please don&#8217;t try it.<\/h4>\n<p>The <code>FilesNotToBackup<\/code> key name itself is self-explanatory. The registry key specifies the names of the files and directories that backup applications and System Restore should not backup or restore. It has nothing to do with hibernation!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h3>Workaround: Turn off hibernation or set to Reduced mode<\/h3>\n<p>If your system drive is full, follow the conventional steps to free up <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/free-up-hard-disk-space-windows\/\">disk space<\/a>. Also, you may turn off hibernation using the &#8220;<code>powercfg.exe \/hibernate off<\/code>&#8221; command line from an admin command prompt. This will delete hiberfil.sys automatically. You can&#8217;t use the hibernation and Fast Startup features, though. If you want to turn it back on, run &#8220;<code>powercfg.exe \/hibernate on<\/code>&#8220;.<\/p>\n<p>Alternately, you can reduce the hibernation file size instead of turning it off entirely. To do so, run the following command line from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/open-elevated-command-prompt-windows\/\">admin Command Prompt<\/a>:<\/p>\n<pre>powercfg \/h \/type reduced<\/pre>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4870\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/hiberfile-size-3.png\" alt=\"reduced or full hiberfile type\" width=\"680\" height=\"127\" \/><\/p>\n<p>If the command returns &#8220;the parameter is incorrect&#8221;, then run the following commands in the same order below:<\/p>\n<pre>powercfg \/h \/size 0\r\n\r\npowercfg \/h \/type reduced<\/pre>\n<p><strong>Note:<\/strong> If you wish to revert to the default (full) hibernation mode, run: &#8220;<code>powercfg \/h \/type full<\/code>&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"qt\">\n<h4>Powercfg.exe Hibernate command-line switches<\/h4>\n<pre>POWERCFG \/HIBERNATE &lt;ON|OFF&gt;\r\nPOWERCFG \/HIBERNATE \/SIZE &lt;PERCENT_SIZE&gt;\r\nPOWERCFG \/HIBERNATE \/TYPE &lt;REDUCED|FULL&gt;\r\n\r\nAlias:\r\nPOWERCFG \/H\r\n\r\nDescription:\r\nEnables\/disables the hibernate feature or sets the hiberfile size.\r\n\r\nParameter List:\r\n&lt;ON|OFF&gt; Enables\/disables the hibernate feature.\r\n\r\n\/SIZE &lt;PERCENT_SIZE&gt; Specifies the desired hiberfile size as a percentage \r\nof the total memory size. The default size cannot be smaller than 40. \r\nThis parameter will also cause hibernate to be enabled.\r\n\r\n\/TYPE &lt;REDUCED|FULL&gt; Specifies the desired hiberfile type. A reduced\r\nhiberfile only supports hiberboot.\r\n\r\nExamples:\r\nPOWERCFG \/HIBERNATE OFF\r\nPOWERCFG \/HIBERNATE \/SIZE 100\r\nPOWERCFG \/HIBERNATE \/TYPE REDUCED\r\n<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<p>In reduced mode, hiberfil.sys consumes disk space that equals only <code>20%<\/code> of the RAM. The reduced mode is sufficient if you need the Fast Startup feature but don\u2019t need the (full) hibernate and the hybrid sleep features; you can use the (S1-S3) sleep feature. It helps to set hiberfil.sys to \u201cReduced\u201d if you\u2019re running short of disk space on the system drive.<\/p>\n<p>For more information, check out the article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/disable-hibernation-without-disabling-fast-startup\/\">Disable Hibernation Without Disabling Fast Startup<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When you hibernate your computer, the system dumps the entire memory contents to a file named hiberfil.sys in the system root folder. It&#8217;s a hidden &amp; system file whose default size is 40 percent of total physical memory (RAM) on a Windows 10 computer. The fast startup feature also uses hibernation technology and the hiberfil.sys &#8230; <a title=\"Can I move Hibernation file (hiberfil.sys) to another drive?\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/move-hiberfil-sys-hibernation-another-drive\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Can I move Hibernation file (hiberfil.sys) to another drive?\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[395],"class_list":["post-23829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-windows","tag-powercfg"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4868,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/disable-hibernation-without-disabling-fast-startup\/","url_meta":{"origin":23829,"position":0},"title":"How to Disable Hibernation Without Disabling Fast Startup","author":"Ramesh","date":"December 18, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Fast Startup is a feature in Windows 8 and 10, which speeds up the boot process significantly. 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File:\\hiberfil.sys Error Code:0xc0000719 Pressing the Enter key caused the error to occur again. Powering off PC via On\/Off chassis button and powering it on again\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Windows 10&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Windows 10","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/windows-10\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10415,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/windows-logs-off-user-when-shutdown-or-hibernate\/","url_meta":{"origin":23829,"position":2},"title":"Windows Logs Off when Shutdown or Hibernate is used","author":"Ramesh","date":"July 20, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Over these years, at least since the Windows 7 era, we've seen several cases where the system logs you off when clicking on the Shutdown or Hibernate option in the Start menu. The problem may be seen in Windows 8, Windows 10, or 11 systems as well. What causes Windows\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Windows&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Windows","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"dumpfilters registry value","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/dumpfilters-registry.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/dumpfilters-registry.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/dumpfilters-registry.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8934,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/you-cannot-shrink-volume-beyond-point-disk-mgmt\/","url_meta":{"origin":23829,"position":3},"title":"[Fix] &#8220;Cannot shrink a volume beyond the point&#8221; when Resizing a Partition Using Disk Management","author":"Ramesh","date":"April 30, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"When you use the Disk Management console to shrink the volume in which the Operation System is installed, you're unable to choose a value (to shrink) beyond a limit. 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