cannot turn off hibernation to remove hiberfil.sys

Running Windows Server 2008 Standard Service Pack 1 on a machine that does
not support hibernation, I have a 2048GB hiberfil.sys (equal to the amount of
memory) and I wish to remove it to save space.

The article below states the step necessary to disable hibernation.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/920730

Following these steps, this returns an error shown below:

C:\Users\Administrator>powercfg.exe /hibernate off
Hibernation failed with the following error: The request is not supported.

The following items are preventing hibernation on this system.
An internal system component has disabled hibernation.

I have tried the following combinations and all fail in the same manner.

C:\Users\Administrator>powercfg.exe /hibernate off
C:\Users\Administrator>powercfg.exe -hibernate off
C:\Users\Administrator>powercfg.exe -h off
C:\Users\Administrator>powercfg.exe /h off

I am using a command prompt as an administrator. If I were not an using an
admin command prompt, it would return this error:
You do not have permission to enable or disable the Hibernate feature.

If I am using Windows Vista Ultimate, this file is easy to delete. I can use
the Disk Cleanup option and it will automatically modify my power settings to
disable this option and delete the file.

I have the Desktop experience enabled as a feature and Disk Cleanup now
appears, but this does not show the option to delete this file.

I have seen some posts that refer to problems with the graphics drivers as a
cause for problems with hibernation. This makes sense as you need to be able
re-initialize the graphics card correctly when resuming from hibernate. I do
currently have a graphics card that is reporting problems (Error Code 43). I
hasn't caused me any problems in using my computer. I have the latest drivers
for my graphics card (3/27/2009). I don't know if this issue is related, only
a thoery. I still would like to diable hibernate regardless of my problem
with my graphics card.

Since hibernation is already turned off, you should delete the hibernation
file by other means, e.g. by booting the machine with a Bart PE boot CD and
getting rid of the file. If you're concerned that this might cause other
problems, rename it only as a first step, then see what happens.

I tried renaming it first, but it's in-use. It's actually created each time
the computer boots to Windows, it's not there when you boot to a command
prompt.
So this would suggest that Hibernation is still enabled, but something, as
the error message suggest an "internal system component" disables hibenation
after boot but doesn't remove the file or prevent creation of the file.

See the dir listing when booting from a command prompt:

5 File(s) 2,460,382,645 bytes
18 Dir(s) 6,441,037,824 bytes free

C:\>

Then after booting to windows and then running the same command prompt:

C:\>dir *.* /A DHSR
Volume in drive C has no label.
Volume Serial Number is E84A-6037

6 File(s) 4,606,608,821 bytes
18 Dir(s) 4,276,563,968 bytes free

Thanks for the suggestion, but it's not going work for me.

Hey Windows 2008, gimme my 2GB back from a feature I'm not even using! :)
I know this is only 2GB, and these days 2GB is nothing to most. My first
hard drive was a 20 Megabyte Seagate hard drive.

Your main problem is, of course, how to turn off the hibernation feature
when Windows claims that it is already turned off. I am unable to offer any
advice on this issue. However, you can probably pull a trick out of the
dirty tricks book by preventing the file from being created: Boot into a
non-Windows Command Prompt, then create a *folder* called c:\Hiberfil.sys.
Non only will this trick prevent the file from being created but it may also
give you a hint where to look for the unwanted hibernation feature.

[tfarmer]

I don't know if you have tried this yet but seems to have worked for me.
Open Regedit and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\PowerCfg
You should see CurrentPowerPolicy and the Value is set to 0 change that Value to 3 and then run from an administrator command prompt powercfg.exe /h off
I've rebooted the server a couple of times and so far the Hiberfil.sys hasn't returned.
And the server is Server 2008 SP1 X64.
Hope this helps.

Go to control Panel>power Option>
than change settings to high Performance
Now from administrator command prompt type powercfg.exe /h off
then check the file.(it will be removed)

I am using Windows 2008 Enterprise Server SP1.
Hope this will help you.

Thanks for the reply. I am already set to high performance.

I still get the following error:
C:\Users\Administrator>powercfg.exe /h off
Hibernation failed with the following error: The request is not supported.

The following items are preventing hibernation on this system.
An internal system component has disabled hibernation.

And the hiberfil.sys is still locked and present.

I changed my reg key from 0 to 3. I rebooted and the file still persists.
I think I am just going to have to live with the extra 2GB.

It also looks like 32-bit processors will not be supported for Windows
Server 2008 R2, so there is little hope that I can get this file removed with
a bug fix.

[givensde]

I ran into the same issue. I was able to remove the file by re-enabling hibernation (powercfg -h on) then immediately turning it off and successfully removing the file (powercfg -h off).

[ari_ekt]

givensde - that was the only thing that worked for me - server 2008 x64 Std. Thanks!

[cholette]

i just signed up to share the solution that worked for me.
I was actually googling for the same issue on Windows 7 and the comment about editing the registry led me to my solution.

I went into hklm\system\currentcontrolset\control\power
In here, i modified 2 keys. HibernateEnabled was set to 1, i changed it to 0, and just in case that didn't work, i also change HiberFileSizePercent from 4b(75) to 1 so that if it somehow stayed enabled, at least the hiberfil.sys would be very small

I am working with Virtual Machines and most of them don't require space at all, other than what's needed to install windows updates and a few softwares so we're trying to keep the disk size to a minimum. That 2.5gb hiberfil.sys file was preventing me from installing SP1. The strange thing is, it only happened on 1 of the 3 Windows 7 VMs i'm working on...even more strange is that they were all fresh installs.

Weird how 3 fresh installs, identical, can behave differently. Oh well, hopefully that'll work for some of you