Disk space for hibernation?

I have just started hibernating instead of shutting down. Why does hibernation take up disk space? What happens to the extra files once windows is resumed? Does this file writing and erasing each time not cause just as much wear to the system as shutting down and powering on again?

Thanks

 

In hibernation, data from RAM is dumped to the hard drive. Your hib file will be equivalent to the amount of RAM you have on your computer. The hib file continually exists, in order to be ready to absorb your RAM upon hibernation. It does not increase or decrease in size over time. The drive wear is insignificant. It's basically a way to have your precise computer state perfectly conserved (as with sleep), but without draining battery or AC power (unlike sleep).

 

Don’t worry too much about hard disk wear, there is nothing much you can do. Besides, hard disks are made to withstand a very high number of read / write cycles. It is working almost always when you are working on the PC, therefore resuming from hibernate or booting fresh doesn’t make any difference in the long run.

 

As Overclocker mentioned, your data from your RAM is put onto your HD, while sleep is when the data remains on your RAM while everything else is turned off.

I always hibernate, it's really handy and useful, but a fresh reboot is a good thing every once in a while

 

I think I'll see how long I can go on this thing before it needs a full reboot.

Thanks for the explanations guys!

 

I use sleep just because it is faster and my laptop is always plugged in.
Went for like 250 hours without have to restart the OS.