Difference between Safe and Deep Sleep?

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Difference between Safe and Deep Sleep?

Hello everyone!

I recently added the Deep Sleep widget for times when I want to force my laptop to hibernate with some battery left and not completely shut it down, but recently it's just been going into hibernation mode when I leave my laptop alone for a few minutes. I clicked on the "info" button in the corner of the widget and discovered the reason: the "Regular Sleep Mode" was set to "deep".

I know quick sleep is the normal "pulsing/breathing" sleep function, but what's the difference between "Safe Sleep" and "Deep Sleep"?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Jun 3, 2011 5:35 PM

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Answer 1

Jun 4, 2011 4:25 AM in response to julyjade24

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1757

Deep Sleep is the equivalent of Windows hibernation. The state of the machine is written to the hard disk and the power is turned off.

Safe Sleep is the first part of Deep Sleep. Before the MBP goes into regular sleep the state of the machine is written to the hard disk. That's why it takes a while for the indicator to begin pulsing. If the battery dies while in regular sleep nothing is lost because of the write to the hard disk. Regular sleep becomes Deep sleep if the battery dies.

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