Hibernation - How to Hibernate

What is Hibernating in Windows XP?

Hibernation is a power management feature introduced in Windows XP. Windows 98 does not have hibernate option. Using hibernation you turn off your PC without closing programs and shutting down the computer. When you shutdown / turn off your computer, all open programs and data will be closed and while restarting, a fresh session will be opened. In contrast while using hibernation in windows XP all open programs / applications will be saved to hard disk and computer is turned off. While turning on the computer the system will resume all previous applications. In other words, while hibernating the data in the memory (RAM) will be saved in Hard Drive as files.

To support hibernation your system should be ACPI Compliant, nowadays almost all computers are ACPI compliant. Hibernation is not standby in which the is running but display and hard drive is turned off.

To manually put your computer into hibernation:

Open Power Options in Control Panel. Click the Hibernate tab, and then select the Enable hibernate support check box. If the Hibernate tab is not available, your computer does not support this feature. Click OK to close the Power Options dialog box. Click Start, and then click Shut Down. In the What do you want the computer to do drop-down list, click Hibernate.

When you put your computer into hibernation, everything in computer memory is saved on your hard disk. When you turn the computer back on, all programs and documents that were open when you turned the computer off are restored on the desktop.
To put your computer into hibernation, you must have a computer whose components and BIOS support this option.

To hibernate, when you press the power button on your computer, in the Advanced tab of Power Options, slect hibernate in the combobox for, When i press the power button on my computer. Now if you press the power button on your computer, the system will hibernate. Alternatively you can go to start menu -> Turn off Computer. Turn off computer Dialog box will appear. Three buttons Stand by, Turn off, Restart will appear. Now press the Shift button on the keyboard. Stand by will change to Hibernate.


Note: Disk space required for Hibernation change from system to system.

Control Panel

What is control panel, How to use it?

Control Panel in Windows XP is the place where you can find icons to configure your system and make changes. All properties, devices, sound, video, network, user management, Disk Management, Volume Control, Font Installation, Add/Remove programs, Modem installation, are done with Control Panel.

The standard installation of Windows XP Professional will have following Icons in Control panel.

Accessibility Options, Add Hardware, Add or Remove Programs, Administrative Tools, Automatic Updates, Date and Time, Display, Folder options, Fonts, Game Controllers, Internet Options, Keyboard, Mouse, Network Connections, Network Setup Wizard, Phone and Modem Options, Power Options, Printer and Faxes, Regional and Language options, Scanners and Cameras, Scheduled Tasks, Security Center, Sounds adn Audio Devices, Speech, System, Taskbar and Start Menu, user Accounts, Windows Firewall, Wireless Network Setup.

Further Administrative Tools contains,

Component Services, Computer Management, Data Sources (ODBC), Event Viewer, Local Security Policy, Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0, Performance, Services.

So you can control each and every aspect of Windows XP operating System through control panel applet. We will discuss each element in separate lessons.

The picture shows the control panel icons in classic view, in windows xp.

chkdsk utility

How to Run 'chkdsk' utility

Windows XP has chkdsk utility (check disk) to check the Hard Disc Drive for Error and problems. In computer systems Hard Drives are more susceptible to errors and problems. The reason is Hard Drives are the only major Mechanical device with moving parts. Hard Drives store data on Magnetic plates. Drives has read heads that is moved by motors to specific location on the magnetic plate. The plates rotates at the speed of thousands of revolutions per seconds. Disks are accessed whenever a program is opened, whenever some data is written. Even when we are not working and idle windows will do some background processing and disk drive is accessed constantly. Due to this constant usage the drive will wear out. Power failure is another reason that affects the Hard Disk Drive. The Windows XP Chkdsk utility comes to our rescue.

Previously in Windows 98, Scandisk was the utility that checks file system corruption and bad sectors on the disk. Widows XP was shipped with advanced version, chkdsk.

chkdsk will fix most common errors in file system.

How to open / use chkdsk utility?

You need not install or download chkdsk. In windows xp computer, open My Comuter, Right click the drive you want to check, Click properties, in the tools tab, Click 'Check Now'.

You will get a dialog box with two check boxes. 1. Automatically fix file system errors. 2. Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors.

Check the two options and click start. Chkdsk will now check your drive for errors and if any errors is found, it will attempt to fix it. It will also try to repair bad sectors.

If you run chkdsk on Driver "c:" with Windows installed on it, chkdsk will run in read only mode



In that case you will get the following message,

The disk check could not be performed because the disk check utility needs exclusive access to some Windows files on the disk. These files can be accessed only by restarting windows. Do you want to schedule this disk check to occur next time you restart the Computer?
Give YES if you want to schedule disk check while restarting computer. If you give yes, when you boot the computer next time, disk check will run automatically, it will make correction on the disk.

How to run dskchk in command line?

To run chkdsk in console mode open command window (start->run->type cmd and give ok) and type chkdsk and press enter.

the current drive will be checked for errors. If you want to check another drive specify it as a parameter, for example give chkdsk d: to check drive D.

Here is the usage of Chkdsk

CHKDSK [volume[[path]filename]]] [/F] [/V] [/R] [/X] [/I] [/C] [/L[:size]]


volume Specifies the drive letter (followed by a colon),
mount point, or volume name.
filename FAT/FAT32 only: Specifies the files to check for fragmentation
.
/F Fixes errors on the disk.
/V On FAT/FAT32: Displays the full path and name of every file
on the disk.
On NTFS: Displays cleanup messages if any.
/R Locates bad sectors and recovers readable information
(implies /F).
/L:size NTFS only: Changes the log file size to the specified number
of kilobytes. If size is not specified, displays current
size.
/X Forces the volume to dismount first if necessary.
All opened handles to the volume would then be invalid
(implies /F).

/I NTFS only: Performs a less vigorous check of index entries.

/C NTFS only: Skips checking of cycles within the folder
structure.

The /I or /C switch reduces the amount of time required to run Chkdsk by
skipping certain checks of the volume.

If chkdsk stops / hangs / freezes, retry with /F option. Restart the computer and try again.
At some times windows will not boot properly and you will get a blue screen error of some kind. Try using chkdsk utility. Some time this fill fix the problem and you can boot in to windows. Boot with Windows XP bootable CD. Select the Repair option (with R key). You will get into recovery console. Login with Administrator user name and password. At command prompt type 'chkdsk'. The drive C: will be checked. Type Exit to reboot.

How to Restart in safe mode

Restart / Reboot in Safemode

There are situation that require you to reboot your computer in safe mode. Safe mode in Windows is a special booting option that allows you log in to windows using minimum set of device drivers and limited functionality. If you have problems with hardware device drivers, virus problems, software problems, installation issues with some applications, registry errors you need to reboot computer in safe mode.

In safe mode you will get access to Administrator login and System Recovery. System Recovery is the option introduced in Windows XP, where you can rollback to previous state after installing a new device or application. Driver roll back is a different thing. In driver rollback, after installing / updating a new version of device driver, and system becomes unstable, you can rollback to previous version of the driver. In System Recovery, after installing /altering critical files / applications, after making registry changes, you can roll back to previous state with simple click of a mouse using system Recovery console.

In Windows XP, when using Safe mode option, the system will ask whether to use System Recovery option or start using computer in Safe Mode? If you click 'Yes' you can use your computer in safe mode. If you click No you will be taken to System Recovery where you get the option to Previous check point at specified date and time.

Ok. How to boot into safe mode? While restarting / booting your computer press F8 key repeatedly. You will get a boot menu with several options. Select 'Safe Mode' or 'Safe Mode with Networking'. Windows xp will start in safe mode.

In safe mode you can remove problematic device drivers using Device Manager. You can even remove display adapters. You can uninstall problematic software, anti-virus programs etc.

In Windows 98, safe mode will not give access to CD Drives, but in Windows XP you can use CD/DVD drives while working in Safe mode. Printers won't work in safe mode.

My First Installation attempt

How i managed to install it on, 10 GB Hard Disk?

I first installed windows XP after 3 months of its release. Previously i had Windows 98 pre-installed on my HCL Computer. The machine configuration is very mean comparing today's speed and capacity. The processor is Intel Pentium processor running at 700 MHz clock speed. It had only 64 MB of SDRAM at 100MHz / 133 MHz FSB (Front Side Bus). The Hard Disk Drive was a Seagate 40 GB running at 500 RPM (Revolutions per Minute). For output the system was connected to a 15 inch CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) Color Monitor.

With the new computer with Windows 98 i managed for 2 years. Once i got the Windows XP Professional CD, i was tempted to taste it. My friend who was studying Computer Engineering also recommend me to Install Windows XP. First i attempted installing XP by using the Upgrade option. After file copying and restarting i got blue screen giving some nasty errors. I repeated it many times and realized that there is option to format the the Hard Drive and install a fresh copy. I worked! After formatting the 10 GB hard disk with primary partition of 4 GB i installed it. Later i upgraded the RAM to 128 MB. It was good with 128MB. Later, as i became expert in windows installation, i tried multiboot with multiple operating systems. I combined Windows XP with Windows 98 and Redhat Linux.

Linux is not easy to install and maintain. Several times i attempted to install Linux. Succeeded in many times. But, in few days the system will crash / corrupt and won't load. I need to reformat it. So i gave up linux and satisfied with Windows XP.

Now, after 7-8 years of using it i know many aspects, features of this beautiful operating system. Installation of applications, hardware and drivers, printers and networking components, wireless networking and much more things possible with XP. This How to do blog will teach you all this in step-by-step manner.

Why, How to Windows Xp Blog

Why this blog, What it is all about?

I have been using computers and internet for more than ten years now. My first experience with a computer happened 10 years ago at my college library. I was studying under graduation at PSG college, Coimbatore. My college library had few computers accessible by students. They had black & white terminals with sturdy keyboards. Students use to search books. The library had huge volumes of books properly cataloged. I had no experience with computers before. A few of my class mates could work on them. I learned by watching them.

Things changed when i learned computer science and took it as my profession. Now i can program computers, assemble computers, repair computers, repair hardware and software etc. With the release of Windows XP, the no frills operating system by Microsoft, many people become computer experts because of its ease of use and less bugs. Its predecessor Windows 98, Desktop operating system too was a lovely product. Windows XP's GUI (Graphical User Interface) and reliability was greatly improved over Windows 98. The kernel / heart of the operating system was completely revamped. The Windows NT kernel was used in XP (code named longhorn). This improved the performance and reliability.

Even after the release of Windows Vista many users are still loyal to Windows XP. They still stick with Windows XP. I still see after purchasing new laptop / desktop computers with pre-installed Windows Vista many people format it and install Windows XP. I think the things will change after release of Windows 7, the much expected latest version of Windows. Microsoft released it last year and commercial versions are becoming available in India. Its success can not be predicted now.

This blog is for those still want more their Windows XP computer. I will offer tips, tweaks, how-to-dos and troubleshooting ideas. So keeping looking for new posts on this blog to get you updated on Windows XP.