Sleep, Hibernate, or Power off?

I started grad school about a month ago. Up until now, I've taken my t61 with me everyday. The commute is about an hour of train and subway rides.

Anyway, up until now I've been putting my computer to sleep whenever I move it around from place to place. I just don't see it as being practical to turn it off or put it in Hibernate. I put it to sleep 4 or 5 times throughout a day.

So, last week my computer crashed on me. Luckily, all I had to do was put in the vista disc and repair it to get me back in. Then I did a system restore to like 2 weeks previous, and it's working. Although, some things it does are a little quirky. I have a feeling the system crashing could've been a direct result of carrying it around while on hibernate. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm just trying to get some feedback from people who are little more savvy about computers than I am.

So, my question is basically this. If I'm moving around all day and turning my computer on and off 4 or 5 times throughout the day, should I be putting it to sleep or should I be using some other power down mode?

 

I find this thread to be useful on this topic. I don't see why putting it in sleep mode would put the hard drive at more risk than normal from transportation.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=164220&highlight=IBM+engineer

I will say one thing though. I have had an instance where shutting the lid didn't fully put my T60 into sleep mode even though I thought it did (the moon symbol was on). I found later the battery almost drained and the bottom very warm and something was running, fan or HD, not sure which. It booted up in safe mode after that, either cause it didn't shut down right, or cause the battery fully drained. So I would say it is always good practice to make sure things are completely quite after going into sleep mode.

 

in sleep mode, the battery will still be drained.

I usually put mine in hibernate, but it doesn't start up a lot faster than from off...

 

I have a T61p WUXGA with Vista and whenever I put the computer into sleep mode on a full charge, it always drains the battery within 12 hours. I read that some people have been able to restore their computers from sleep 5 days later.

 

My battery also drains on standby, and the battery gets completely drained. So I won't do it for long periods to avoid battery damage.

 

Is it possible the system in this case went into standby, and then later hibernated? Systems can sit in standby for a substantial length of time, but 128 hours is quite a bit...

 

If my computer is going to be unused for more than 20 minutes, i shut it off

 

I think I lose about 15 to 20% of battery life each day I'm in standby.

Does closing the lid put the unit into standby?

Need to be careful. I closed the lid, the moon came on so I think it was in standby. Then I pulled the usb mouse out, and it came out of standby with the lid still closed.