Windows 7 Won't Hibernate after Windows Update, Wakes Solved

Question

I had a windows 7 system that hibernated every single day of my life, except on the days- Windows forced a critical update to my computer. Then I always had to do a system restore to get back hibernation back and working properly, then manually go to Windows update and download/install the updates myself. That method of manually installing the updates never caused a problem for me to be able to hibernate. But system restore was critical every single time after Microsoft installed the critical update to enable hibernation again.

Long story short I had no restore points to go back to. There was a forcded Windows update and I lost hibernation. I spent the better part of 7 weeks, day and night, night and day CHANGING EVERYTHING ON MY COMPUTER to get back hibernation. Nothing worked.

I MEAN I CHANGED EVERYTHING in no particular order.

• I updated every single driver I had, over 25.
• I updated the bios.
• I checked to see that I had sleep/hibernation capability in the bios.
• I downloaded and installed and ran Drivermax, Tuneup Utilities, Driverbooster, Boostspeed, Slimdrivers, numerous programs aimed at being a substitute for hibernation, Intel drivers, Realtek drivers
• I shut off every single possible device in device manager by disabling them. still no hibernate.
• I unchecked every box in device manager to allow my computer to sleep.
• I ran powerconfig.exe - energy many many times, followed all those leads for weeks.

• I deleted scheduled tasks that might be a problem, windows media,mcupdate etc.

• I shut off my own Fios router.

• I unjoined my windows 7 wireless home group.

• I checked and unchecked hundreds of times the options in Power Plans. I even changed power plans many times.

• I used many registry cleaners.

• I ran several Microsoft Hotfixes aimed to solve the power problem.

• I ran the system readiness tool. Some of these things I was just guessing.

• I ran sfc /scannow many times because it kept stopping at less than 100% or would complete very fast like as if it hadn't worked.

• I ran my Windows 7 System Repair Disc, to repair and it said my computer is booting, nothing to fix.

• I rolled back drivers.

• I ran Windows Hotfixes, Mr. Fix its, to fix Windows Update because by this time it was offering the same 2 updates over and over again.

• I installed and ran CCCleaner, Wise Care 365., WinUtilities, Glary Utilities.

• I defragged a few times with a few programs, updated drivers on mice, and keypad.

• I ran an online scan with Eset.

• I ran hijack this and checked many items to delete, of which many did not go away. ie "file missing."

• I did so many things in 7 weeks that my mind can't remember them all! Truly. I read and followed at least 100 pages of recommendations.

Then I solved this problem in 2 ways. I hesitate to tell you how for fear it will break again for me, but it has been working for 3 days despite several restarts/shut downs and testings throughout the day.

1. My computer stopped sleeping, it wouldn't sleep along the way, when I ran this command or one very similar powercfg -H -size 100% and PowerCfg.exe /HIBERNATE /SIZE 100, and it brought back sleep. Sleep was turned on. from sizing my hibernation file. Go Figure. Still no hibernate!

2. Then The answer was found on this page - Why doesn't Hibernate work any more (Windows 7)?

It appeared like this -

Got the same problem:

shutdown /h The system cannot find the file specified.(2)

My solution was enabling automount via diskpart.exe:

Microsoft DiskPart version 6.1.7601 Copyright (C) 1999-2008 Microsoft Corporation. On computer: FELIX-T420SI

DISKPART> automount

Automatic mounting of new volumes disabled.

DISKPART> automount enable

Automatic mounting of new volumes enabled.

DISKPART>

Following a restart, hibernation now works. share|improve this answer

answered Aug 3 at 20:01 feklee 402420

• I had never heard of DISKPART. I had and have no idea what it does, but I tried it and restarted and IT WORKED.
  I can hibernate. That is all I did, and in one moment in time with one change I could hibernate windows 7 again. SOLVED.

THANK YOU feklee!

PS Since there are thousands/millions of us with this problem, I wanted to add that this above solution worked for me to the original thread, to add what didn't work for me, and I rarely saw mentioned a direct relationship with Windows update and losing hibernation anywhere on the web with a fix, but the original thread was closed so I posted it this way.