Originally Posted by
magpienja
Mmmmm so is hibernation the same as stand by
Not quite - tho' the effect may seem the same.
Essentially, 'stand by' powers down yer hard drives, usb, video & sound drivers - in fact everything except the motherboard, which remains awaiting your next command. It then powers up the peripherals & gets on with it.
Hibernation is different in that it makes an exact copy of everything you are doing at the time
, onto the hard drive. It then turns the machine off completely. This obviously saves energy (takes no power at all in a laptop, a tiny amount in a desktop, 'cos the powersupply is still connected to the mains) and arguably protects your machine from power surges, since it ain't doing anything to be ruined by spikes of volts.
Restart from hibernate is a bit slower, since everything has to be reloaded from the hard drive. But it doesn't take long. Usually!