Windows 11 Disable Hibernation File Hot! May 2026

Open Command Prompt as Admin (right-click Start button → Terminal (Admin) → choose Command Prompt).

powercfg /h size 20 That would reduce it from 19 GB to ~3.2 GB in her case. Check your hibernation file size if you’re low on disk space in Windows 11. If you never use Hibernate (only Sleep and Shutdown), disable it with:

Frustrated, she opened and clicked “Show more categories.” That’s when she saw it: “System & reserved” was huge. windows 11 disable hibernation file

She verified with:

powercfg /h off Press Enter.

She did use (which keeps RAM powered, no disk write), but she never needed full hibernation. That huge file was wasted space. What Meera did She decided to disable hibernation entirely , which would remove hiberfil.sys and free up the space — but keep Sleep mode working.

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Here’s a short, useful story that explains — without losing the ability to use Sleep mode. The Case of the Vanishing Disk Space Meera was a freelance video editor. Her new laptop came with Windows 11 and a fast 256 GB SSD. But within weeks, she noticed something strange: her free space kept shrinking for no obvious reason.