Windows 11 — Disable Hibernation File

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:

powercfg /h off Press Enter.

Open Command Prompt as Admin (right-click Start button → Terminal (Admin) → choose Command Prompt). windows 11 disable hibernation file

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. powercfg /h size 20 That would reduce it from 19 GB to ~3

Within seconds, hiberfil.sys was deleted. Almost free instantly. Open Command Prompt as Admin (right-click Start button

She dug deeper. In , she saw the main drive (C:) and clicked “Properties.” Still not clear.

dir C:\hiberfil.sys “File not found” — success. Yes — but she didn’t care. Fast Startup is a hybrid hibernation mode. Without hibernation, Windows boots slightly slower (an extra 2–3 seconds on her SSD). Sleep still worked perfectly, and she gained back critical disk space for video projects. What if you do want Fast Startup but not a huge hibernation file? You can keep Fast Startup but shrink the hibernation file to 20% of RAM (minimum safe size):