What is "hiberfil.sys"

one question i get from some more advanced users is

What is this "hiberfil.sys" file in the root of my C drive? and why is it so big?

this is easy if you have hibernation enabled than when you hibernate your computer all the data in your ram goes into this file. Now it is so big because it has to fit your ram card into it if your ram is 512 MB then you will notice that the hiberfil.sys will be about 513 Mb, min mine (if enabled) is 2 GB, if you need the space than you can disable it in power management

In XP

1. Right click on your desktop and click Properties.
2. Click the "Screen Savor" tab (on the top)
3. Click the power settings button
4. Click the "Hibernation" tab, then uncheck the box next to "Enable Hibernation"
5. Click ok, the Click ok again.
6. You May have to restart your computer.
   

In Vista It is a lot more complicated

1. Click on the Start button (the little window button, normaly in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen)
2. in the search box type cmd and Do NOT PRESS ENTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
3. Right click on "cmd.exe" and click "Run as Administrator"
4. Click Continue when the UAC prompt appears
5. Type powercfg -h off and press ENTER...

William Edward McCormick