Starting from the Windows Millennium Edition EBD Disables the Hibernation File

After you start a computer using the startup disk in Windows Millennium Edition (Me) the computer cannot resume from the hibernation it was sent into before starting from the Emergency Boot Disk (EBD).

Rather than restoring Windows to the exact point it was at when it went into hibernation, the computer will do a complete restart process as if it were just turned on. The previous system state (before hibernation) will not be restored and unsaved data may be lost.

The EBD contains an executable (Hibinv.exe) that intentionally renders the hibernation storage file unusable when starting up from the EBD. This occurs in order to prevent serious issues from arising when using the EBD to restore a previous "System Restore" restore point.

To prevent the EBD from rendering the hibernation file unusable, follow these steps:

WARNING: Altering the Emergency Boot Disk (EBD) in this manner may lead to data loss and/or a no boot situation if the EBD is later used to restore a System Restore restore point.

1. Insert the EBD into the floppy disk drive.
2. Open WordPad from Start, Programs, and then Accessories.
3. On the File menu, click Open.
4. In the Open dialog box, in the Files of type list, select All Documents, and then open Autoexec.bat from the "a:" drive.
5. Alter the third line down in the Autoexec.bat file so that it reflects the line below:

   REM \hibinv.exe
   					

6. Click the WordPad File menu, click Save to save the changes, and then close WordPad.
7. To reverse the change so that the hibernation file becomes inactive when using the EBD to restore a System Restore point, repeat steps 1 through 5, altering line 3 of the EBD's Autoexec.bat to reflect the following line:

   \hibinv.exe
   					

The next hibernation process overwrites the damaged hibernation file and will resume successfully.

The hibernation file contains information on current system processes and information in memory at the time the system is directed to hibernate. The file itself, Vmmhiber.w9x, is located at X:\%WinDir%\ (where X is the drive that the Windows directory is) and is a hidden file.

For additional information about how to determine which folder Windows is installed in, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: