Hybrid Boot is a new feature of Windows 8 that was recently discovered in one of the latest builds. It uses the basic idea of hibernation but utilizes it solely for core operating systems files. This speeds up the start of the operating system considerably but comes without the privacy implications.

Hibernation should not be confused with sleep mode. Sleep Mode is a low power mode that does not shut down the computer completely.

Hybrid Boot is enabled by default in the latest builds, and you use it automatically when you press the shutdown button of the start menu.

So, the difference between Hybrid Boot and Hibernation is the data that’s saved for a faster system start.

Hybrid Boot reduced the startup time on systems to about 20 seconds, according to Windows 8 News. It is to early to say if this is an average figure or achieved with high-end Solid State Disks or Raid setups.

It seems however as if all Windows 8 users could benefit from reduced startup times if Microsoft makes the decision to keep the feature included in the operating system.

Multi-boot computer users will notice a downside of Hybrid Boot: The boot manager of the system is not displayed if Windows 8 was shut down with Hybrid Boot enabled.

That’s why there is an option to disable Hybrid Boot in Windows 8. The feature can be disabled in the Control Panel under Power Options.

Keep in mind that the information that we currently have may change at anytime during development. We keep you posted.

In other news: The Windows 8 Enterprise edition will feature an option to run the operating system from a portable drive (see Windows 8 Portable Workspace Allows OS To Run From USB).

I decided to run a hard disk analyzer for a visual display of the files and folders that used most of the space on the hard drive. Disk Space Fan was my choice but any hard disk analyzer will do.

I noticed two files that were using 14 Gigabytes of space together: hiberfil.sys with 6 Gigabytes and pagefile.sys with 8 Gigabytes. Hiberfil.sys is used for hibernation, a feature that I’m not using at all while pagefile.sys was the data that the pagefile in Windows allocated for disk caching purposes. Eight Gigabyte sounded a lot considering that the computer had eight Gigabytes of computer memory installed.

I therefore decided to disable hibernation completely to free up the six Gigabytes it was using and reduce the pagefile from eight Gigabytes to a maximum of two thus freeing up 12 Gigabytes of hard disk space on a 80 Gigabyte hard drive, not bad I would say.

Disabling Hibernation

The easiest way to do this is to open an elevated command prompt (by right-clicking the cmd tool in the start menu and selecting the run as administrator option). The command to turn off hibernation in Windows is “powercfg.exe -h off” without the “”. A restart is required for the changes to take effect. Windows will remove hiberfil.sys from the system which frees up the allocated disk space.

Reducing the size of the pagefile

The pagefile can be controlled in the Windows control panel. A click on System and Security > System > Advanced System Settings will display a new configuration window. A click on the Settings button under Performance and the selection of the Advanced tab in the opening menu will display the current pagefile settings. A click on the Change button makes it possible to reduce the size of the pagefile by manually selecting a value for the file.

The two little configuration changes freed up 12 Gigabytes of storage space on the hard drive allowing me to install the applications that I wanted without breaking the 20% rule. Do you have additional tips for saving up space on the primary partition? Let us hear them in the comments.

Now, Hibernation mode is useful if you suddenly have to stop working right where you are but want to continue where you left oft. Maybe the power of your notebook is not lasting any longer and you need to connect it to a power source. Hibernation modes opens everything the way it was when you activated that mode.

Still, the file is huge and not really useful anymore unless you want to access this again in a later sessions. Most users do not need hiberfil.sys at all once they booted again into Windows.

The best way to delete hiberfil.sys would be if you did not use Hibernation at all. The feature is enabled in most notebooks sold and can be easily deactivated. Go to Control Panel, choose Power Options, click on Hibernate and uncheck Enable hibernation.

This will automatically delete the file hiberfil.sys. If you need Hibernation simply activate the option again after the process deleted the file.

via Raymond.cc