Friday 14 June 2013

Windows 7 - Attempting to Hibernate Results in Locking Instead

Overview

This post details how I fixed a problem with my laptop where attempting to hibernate the computer resulted in it locking instead.

This seems to be a reasonably uncommon problem; there are results on Google but there is no clear one-size-fits-all solution. This is largely due to there being multiple reasons this can occur. Whilst you may be more likely to see this problem if you dual boot Windows with another OS, I started seeing the issue after upgrading my laptop's hard drive.

The Problem

Every day, when finished with the laptop, I click the hibernate button, close the lid and place the laptop away in a drawer. Since upgrading my hard drive however, I've found that the next morning the laptop's battery is completely drained and prompts me like I've let the computer running. Tracking that down today, I discovered that when the hibernate button is pressed now, the screen goes blank for a few seconds before returning me to the lock screen. Still fully powered on, just locked.


The Solution

The solution for me was to enable disk automounting. From Microsoft's tech support here:
When enabled (the default), Windows automatically mounts the file system for a new basic volume when it is added to the system, and then assigns a drive letter to the volume.
 The problem I was facing was the automounting was disabled on the new hard drive for some reason.

To fix, you need to run the following command from an elevated command window.

  1. c:\windows\system32>diskpart
  2. DISKPART> automount enable
  3. DISKPART> exit
Put simply, line 1 enter the DISKPART utility. Line 2 enables automounting. Line 3 exits the DISKPART utility.

You'll want to restart your machine after this. Once you have rebooted, you can see if this fix worked for you. As mentioned previously, this will only fix one of many possible problems that has the system of locking instead of hibernating, but if it does work for you, drop me a comment below.

12 comments:

  1. Hello! Thanks a lot for this great tip. I tried to solve it on my laptop for a month with no results. After reading your article I also saw that the automount was disabled. You've made my day longer for few minutes as now the laptop starts much faster! :)

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    Replies
    1. So glad I could help.

      I had thought the problem might be so obscure that it wouldn't help anyone out but glad to see that's not the case.

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    2. Indeed, it's such an obscure issue that I thought I wouldn't fix it... But finally your post appeared in google, so the puzzle has been resolved

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  2. Thank you, you saved my day !! I was already getting depressed.

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  3. Thanks for this VERY helpful post. My laptop is hibernating again as desired!

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  4. Thanks this worked, but now after 2 weeks its back again :( Is this not a permanent solution? Please help.

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  5. bwahahaha it worked

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    Replies
    1. and now it stopped working :(

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  6. Well done, it worked!!

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  7. Absolutely genius, thanks you sir.

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