Hibernate vs Standby (Sleep)
Hibernate and standby are two features in the windows operating system environment, which allows putting the computer into an easily recoverable mode compared to the Shutdown state. In shut down process, all the memory is cleared, and work is saved to the hard drive, and the computer is put into a state that does not consume power, i.e. the computer is turned off.
More about Standby Mode (Sleep Mode)
Standby mode or suspend mode, now commonly termed as the sleep mode, is a power saving state in computers and other electronic devices. In computers, sleep mode is the pausing of the state of the machine and using a minimal power input to maintain the standby in the memory. This state is usually expressed using a pulsating LED.
With the press of the power button, the operations can be resumed if the computer is in the sleep mode. For example if a user has three programs running and connected to the internet, upon putting the computer on standby, all the three programs and the internet connection are suspended in that state. Press the power button, the computer starts at the same state in which you put it into sleep mode. All along the time during the sleep mode the memory is consuming power.
More about Hibernate
In computers, hibernating is powering down the system, while retaining the state of the PC. When hibernating the contents of the memory (Random Access Memory- RAM) is saved in the permanent memory of the computer. An image of the computer is saved in a non-volatile storage media such as hard drive, and when resumed the image is used to restore the computer to the previous state.
When the power button is pressed again, the computer runs the boot sequence and restores the computer to the previous state using the image created earlier. For example, suppose the three programs are running and the internet connected as before. When the computer is hibernating, it saves the data in the RAM to the hard drive and completely turns off the computer. When resumed the computer starts the operating system and restore the 3 programs to the previous state, but the internet connection might or might not connect; this is due to the connection type and the configuration of settings.
Hybrid sleep is a new power-saving feature specifically used in desktop computers, where the properties in the sleep and hibernation modes are combined. Hybrid sleep saves any programs to memory and to the hard disk of the computer, and then puts the computer into a low-power state.
What is the difference between Hibernate and Standby (Sleep)?
• In hibernation, the computer completely turns off while, on standby (or sleep mode), computer is at a minimal power consuming state where the memory elements are consuming power.
• In hibernation, an image of the memory is saved to the hard drive while, on standby, the memory is retained.
• When hibernated, the resumption requires the operating system to start-up from the very beginning (since the computer is turned off) while, on standby, the computer requires no start-up in the operating system.