How to reclaim a massive amount of Hard Drive space (hiberfil.sys)

The Hibernate mode on your computer differs from a Sleep mode in two ways. Sleep places your documents and running programs in memory (RAM), and then switches to very low power consumption. Hibernate places your documents and running programs on the hard disk, and will then switch to an ultra low power consumption mode (even less than Sleep). This is ideal for laptops that will be left for long periods of time without access to a charger.

Hibernate takes a snapshot of your currently running session, and saves it to the hard disk. On Windows XP, this file is equal to the amount of RAM on your computer, which can be quite a large file on some computers. On Windows 7, it is equal to 75% of the total amount of RAM.

To reclaim this space, you will need to disable Hibernate mode on your computer


For Windows XP:

1. Open up the Control Panel, and click on Power Options.
2. On the Power Options and Properties page, click on the Hibernate tab.
3. Remove the checkmark next to "Enable Hibernation".


For Windows Vista and 7:

Disable Hibernate The Easy Way:

1. Open an elevated command prompt, and type powercfg -h off

Disable Hibernate The Long Way:

1. Open Control Panel
2. Click on Power Options
3. Click on Change plan settings for your power settings
4. Click on Change advanced power settings 
5. In the list expand Sleep
6. Expand both Hibernate after and Allow hybrid sleep, and set them to Never and Off, respectively.
7. When finished, click Apply.