I was having this problem on my Windows Vista x64 based PC. Hibernation previously worked fine on my system but from some days whenever I switched on my desktop to resume my system from hibernation I got this error: ‘System was shut down unexpectedly’. Hibernation is a very important power saving feature of Windows which is very useful specially for laptop users. I prefer hibernating my desktop too. This error irritated me as I love the hibernation feature of Windows.

I tried switching off the hibernation feature using the ‘powercfg.exe /hibernate off’ command and then switched the hibernation back on by using ‘powercfg.exe /hibernate on’ command (you need to run Command Prompt as an Administrator to run these commands). I also deleted the ‘Hibernation file cleaner’ using disk cleanup and then ran those commands again but it didn’t help. That error was still thrown to me when ever I tried to resume my desktop.

After trying all this I searched for the solution and found something on MSDN forums. I tried those steps and voila! Hibernation started working again. Hibernation stops working because Boot Configuration Data (BCD) stores corrupt information. Here are the steps you need to follow in case the commands mentioned above don’t work for you:

1. Open up the Start menu and type ‘cmd’ (without quotes) and press ‘Ctrl+Shift+Enter’ keys on the keyboard or go to Start -> All Programs -> Accessories. Right click Command Prompt and select ‘Run as Administrator’. Enter your Administrator credentials on the UAC prompt.
2. Type this in the Command Prompt: ‘bcdedit -enum all’ (without quotes).
3. From the given output locate this entry- Resume from Hibernate – Identifier {xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx} . You’ll see your identifier instead of these xxxxs’.
4. By using your mouse, right click on the identifier string. Select ‘Mark’ from the menu and then highlight the entire identifier information and then press ‘Enter’ key on the keyboard in order to copy it.
5. Now type ‘bcdedit /deletevalue’ (without quotes) press ‘Space’ key on the keyboard Right click with mouse and select ‘Paste’ to copy the identfier then press ‘Space’ key again and type ‘inherit’ (without quotes). It should appear like this- bcdedit /deletevalue {xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx} inherit. Now press ‘Enter’ on your keyboard.
6. You’ll shortly see the success message in the command prompt.
7. Close Command Prompt and restart your PC. HIbernation should now be working.