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Enable Hibernate with powercfg /hibernate on

Restore the missing Hibernate option and the hiberfil.sys file it depends on, from an admin prompt.

WindowscmdPower & SleephibernateLow risk
Run powercfg /hibernate on in an elevated prompt — the Hibernate entry appears in the power menu after you also enable it in Control Panel's power button options.

01Command

Command
$ powercfg /hibernate on
powercfg /h on

02What it does

Hibernate writes the entire session (open apps, files, windows) to disk and powers the machine fully off — ideal for laptops that should use zero power overnight. Windows sometimes disables it, which removes hiberfil.sys and hides the menu entry; powercfg /hibernate on recreates the file and re-registers the state. Note the file defaults to roughly 40% of your RAM size, so on a 32 GB machine expect about 13 GB of disk usage; powercfg /h /type reduced keeps fast startup while shrinking that. If the menu option still doesn't show, turn it on under Control Panel > Power Options > "Choose what the power buttons do".

03Risk

RiskLow risk
RequirementsCommand Prompt or PowerShell as Administrator
!Warning: Hibernation reserves GBs of disk for hiberfil.sys; on nearly full SSDs use powercfg /h /size 50 to shrink it or disable hibernation instead.

04Undo

Undo
$ powercfg /hibernate off

05Sources

  • powercfg command-line options
    Microsoft Learn · vendor-doc · 2026-09-17
    Evidence: Documents powercfg /hibernate (alias /h) with on/off switches to enable or disable hibernation.

Last verified: 2026-09-18 · Category: System & Settings

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