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What are hiberfil.sys and pagefile.sys files, and can I safely delete them?

Fresh5 days ago
Mar 15, 2026234338 views
Confidence Score1%
1%

Problem

I noticed two big (~ 2GB) files (hiberfil.sys and pagefile.sys) at the root of my C: drive and wondered what they were. I searched on google and found some interesting links, but did not find any answer on this site. I guess it would be good to have this question answered here for future reference. Here are my questions: What is the file hiberfil.sys for? What is the file pagefile.sys for? Can I safely delete these files?

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Fix for: What are hiberfil.sys and pagefile.sys files, and can I safely delete them?

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hiberfil.sys: is a file used by Windows when you choose to 'Hibernate' the system. Take a look at this site on how to delete it, if you won't use the Hibernate option. In short, you run in a command terminal with administrator privileges. The file should then be automatically deleted, and the Windows hibernation feature disabled. pagefile.sys: is the file used by Windows to be your Page File, or your virtual memory swap. If you have 1 GB of RAM and want to use 2 GB as your memory, Windows will …

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