Hibernate or shutdown computer? When power breaks

Question

My last computer had one of too many power breaks - the electricity popped, and eventually had my hard-drive corrupted (probably). After reading a few articles about hibernation, I'm yet to understand - Can my computer be damaged in case of a power break, while hibernated?

And on the same topic, is there a way to configure my UPS to gracefully shutdown the computer after a period of time that the power doesn't come back on? Is there a dedicated driver, or software, for each UPS that should have come with it?

And one last thing - I read an article about Shutting down after being idle. It does, however, force the programs to close, which leads me to the next logical question - forcing the programs to quit will leave all changes unsaved? Is there a way to gracefully shutdown the computer?

Turns out to be 3 questions. Will summarize them here for convenience:

1. Can my computer be damaged in case of a power break, while hibernated?
2. How can I configure my UPS to shutdown gracefully after a period of time?
3. Is there a way to gracefully shutdown the computer?

Answer 1

When you put a computer in Hibernation mode it essentially goes into a shutdown state with the exception that it stores the contents of memory into the hard disk. Unlike sleep were it still uses a little bit of power to keep everything in memory hibernation mode doesn't. Power breaks shouldn't effect you so long as you have the computer in hibernation mode:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/sleep-and-hibernation-frequently-asked-questions

An alternative if you really want to be secure against these types of threats is to get a UPS (Uninterpretable Power Supply). You will plug the UPS into the wall and the computer into the UPS. The UPS has a battery so if the power comes down your system will still be up (usually around 30 minutes). Most UPS have software to start a shutdown immediately once it knows the power has gone down.

Answer 2

To answer your first question:

No, your computer will not be damaged by a power outage while hibernated. When you hibernate your computer, you are completely turning the power off. If you hibernate a laptop, for example, you can unplug the power cord and remove the battery without any damage and without losing any data.

If there's a power surge, I suppose your computer could be damaged, but not because it's hibernated instead of shut down.

Answer 3

What damages the computer are power surges and brownouts, which cause sudden fluctuations on voltage. Those are common before and after a power outage, but the lack of energy itself won't cause any damage (see below). A good PSU will handle small fluctuations, but for big ones you need to connect your computer to a surge protector, or a UPS, which usually has a surge protector in it.

The lack of power itself in a power outage does not cause any physical damages on modern computers. Old hard drivers could suffer from a head crash in the case of a power outage, but that's not the case any more. The only thing the lack of energy may cause is data corruption/loss of data if the computer is on and running, or on sleep mode, and that's what the UPS will be protecting you from-it'll give you time to turn off the computer properly.

1. Hibernation is just copying the current state of the computer - the software that are running, etc - to the hard drive and turn it off normally. You can hibernate your computer, power cycle it and turn it on again to test it. So no, a power outage will not cause any damages to a computer that is hibernated or turned off, and properly connected to a surge protector and has a good PSU.

2. and 3. Some UPSs provide that option, yes. There's a guide on the first link.