Windows Hibernation File and Paging File

[mettelus]

This is worth mentioning, since these two files consume memory and can make driver issues persist on reboot.

The Windows Hibernation File (hiberfil.sys) is used to capture current state of the machine in order to essentially "shutdown" and return to its current state. Because this has often had issues with DAWs, it has always been recommended not to have your computer hibernate, but that does NOT remove the file or keep it from rebuilding itself in the background. I just did an image and had a WTF moment, since that file was 43.5GB! That file is hidden from view on the main C drive, but you can either show protected files to see it in Windows Explorer, or use a utility like TreeSize Free (recommended). If you never use it (which is recommended), in order to delete it and make it not rebuild itself, here is a nice article on how to do that. Win10 and Win11 are identical, and is a simple command prompt (directions to re-enable it are also there if desired).

The Windows Paging File (pagefile.sys) acts akin to virtual RAM on the hard drive (also in the main C root directory). On warm boots (restarts) this can reload RAM quickly but has the caveat of "carrying things forward." Even on a cold boot (shut down, then power on), this can stay resident for the same purpose. Unless forced to be purged on a shutdown, it can carry driver issues forward (and also things you might not want in RAM). This article goes through how to force the Paging File to purge on each shutdown. Again Win10 and Win11 are identical and editing the Group Policy is the preferred method (if on Pro), but it also includes the registry edit method. Again, this also shows how to re-enable it if so inclined.

Edited Sunday at 03:26 PM by mettelus

[Amberwolf]

14 hours ago, mettelus said:

I just did an image and had a WTF moment, since that file was 43.5GB!

It should be essentially the size of your RAM, since your entire RAM state needs to fit into it, and it has to ensure there is always enough reserved space for this to happen without any intervention (user or otherwise).   

[mettelus]

Neither of those files image since they are not required to make Windows run, but when the image ended up being less than half the "consumed space" of the drive it made me wonder. I totally blew off Windows updates resetting features so I brought that one on myself. I just wanted to bring this up because creating/updating the hibernation file itself is totally wasted resources if you have hibernation disabled.