Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2018 December 11

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December 11

Deleted hiberfil.sys, then HD runs continuously

The file hibrtfil.sys was taking up 23GB of my SSD (C: drive). I don't use hibernation or sleep, so I deleted it with powervfg -h off. Now one of my secondary HDDs has been running continuously for hours. Is this normal? Is there a way to delete that file without having a HDD run continuously? Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 09:12, 11 December 2018 (UTC)

What version of Windows OS do you have? Ruslik_Zero 20:15, 11 December 2018 (UTC)

It is Windows 10 home, build 17134. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 02:55, 12 December 2018 (UTC)

I find it doubtful these are connected. BTW the file should be called hiberfil.sys, I assume hibrtfil.sys was a typo. If it wasn't, you may want to check for malware with urgency. Nil Einne (talk) 09:24, 12 December 2018 (UTC)

@Bubba73 and Nil Einne: Also, 'powervfg' should probably read 'powercfg' – and this, similarly to 'hibrtfil', is a result of shifting the finger hit one key rightwards. :) CiaPan (talk) 11:13, 12 December 2018 (UTC)

Yes I noticed that it could occur by shifting rightwards, but missed the powervfg. Nil Einne (talk) 14:54, 12 December 2018 (UTC)

Sorry, my typos (it was late at night). The HD running for hours started right after I deleted the file. I can try again - I just did that and so far the HD hasn't started up. Since I don't use sleep or hibernate mode, are there any adverse results from deleting that file? Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 17:44, 12 December 2018 (UTC)

Well, it is still running OK. When I deleted this file once before, it seemed to cause it to take a long time to boot, IIRC. I haven't rebooted yet, though. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 00:18, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

I believe if you disable hibernation, fast startup will also generally be disabled as it basically boots up Windows half way and stores the memory contents in the hibernation file as normal [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]. It may be possible to disable hibernation but keep a smaller hibernation file to preserve fast startup (since you don't need so much) but it's not something I've done myself. But other than disabling hibernation (for everything such as a UPS) and possibly fast startup, I'm pretty sure there's no disadvantage to disabling hibernation and removing the hibernation file. Nil Einne (talk) 10:58, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

I've turned the file back on for now. Slow bootups bother me more. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 22:59, 14 December 2018 (UTC)

Looking for third-party tool to test user's browser.

We want to create a web page (to be hosted on our web servers) to test our users' browsers. We want to know all sorts of diagnostic information - anything from what browser they are using to how many websockets their browser supports. For example, something roughly like this http://html5test.com. The idea is that when a user calls our help desk and says something isn't working, we can ask them to go to our diagnostic test page and hopefully help us determine if something is wrong. For example, if a user says that our website isn't working, we can direct them to this test page and if it says that web sockets (for example) aren't working, we know what the problem is. Rather than attempt to roll our own from scratch, are there any third-party tools that we can use? AnonComputerGuy (talk) 18:48, 11 December 2018 (UTC)