Sleep vs Hibernate in Windows

The features of sleep and hibernate that have been included in Windows since the release of the Windows 7 operating system has been a reason of great confusion among users. Most users are still confused about the difference of "sleep mode" and "hibernate mode" and what functions do the serve.

Sleep mode is a mode which enables lower power consumption in computers. This particular mode works almost like the "pause" feature and enables the user to resume work from exactly where they had left off. Some computers may ask for a boot of the system, but that does not mean that you are going to lose any of the data that has been unsaved.

On the other hand, hibernate mode enables the user to power down the computer without losing the previous running state. The computer saves the running data of its RAM to a non-volatile storage and resumes from where the user has left the system before inflicting hibernation. Hibernation usually saves more electrical consumption than sleep mode and is now very popular among students who use battery operated laptops in classrooms or in various projects.

Both the modes, "sleep' and "hibernate' are basic power reduction features, which operate almost like standby mode available in the previous versions of Windows. Power spending is insignificant in sleep mode compared to the usual working status of your computer or laptop powered by Windows OS, and your PC uses even less electrical power while switched to the special "hibernate modes". During hibernation, no power is actually used and technically, the computer can be in this particular state for years.

When the "sleep' mode is used, your personal computer stores the existing status of your undone or unfinished or even unsaved works such as settings and files in the volatile memory RAM and turns off every other function of the computer. For this very reason, the computer can be turned on pretty quickly. The sleep option saves a lot of electrical energy, but it has its shortcomings. The user must ensure to plug in the computer for all the time or give it a constant source of power supply. If the battery runs out, the user will need to reboot his computer which will result in erasing the saved contents in the RAM and will delete his unsaved or unfinished works.

In hibernation mode, the computer requires a little bit of more time than it requires in sleep mode. The computer boots up again and rescues the contents saved in the non-volatile memory storage which had been saved from the RAM while inflicting hibernation. The best part is that the computer does not need any power supply while in hibernation and the battery will never run out in this mode.

The main disadvantage of sleep mode is that the current data may be lost due to a number of reasons but the main advantage is that, you can resume your work from where you have left it in real quick time.

While as, in hibernation, the disadvantage is that the computer needs a little bit more time to resume its work, but the biggest advantage of it is that, none of your works face the risk of deletion.

Both the functions are great in their use and execution, but depends upon the user, how will he use them. The differences are very little yet very useful. The user needs to understand what they need. For many users, who don't have access of a power plug at their disposal, the "hibernate mode" may prove to be more useful than the "sleep mode" for them.