Unable to Mount Boot Camp volume due to it being Hibernated

Scenario

When trying to mount BootCamp partition using NTFS for Mac 15 or previous versions, there is a message saying that the partition is hibernated and the partition fails to be mounted.

Reason

This error is caused, because you hibernated Windows instead of turning it off the normal way.

• Hibernating saves the current state information to the hard disk and then powers down the computer.
• Shutting down the computer closes all programs and ends all running processes before powering down the computer.

When you turn off Windows by hibernating it, you are essentially pausing the system and saving all of that information (into a big file called hiberfil.sys) This way when you resume from hibernation all of your applications and files will be exactly how you left them. It also sets a flag in hiberfil.sys to let other Operating Systems know that Windows is hibernated.

Making changes to your Windows (ntfs) partition while it is hibernated could be dangerous - it could cause Windows to not resume from hibernation or to crash after resuming. Because of this, the tool that mounts the partition will not mount it in read-write mode if it sees a hibernation flag.

Solution 1

Turn off Fast Startup.

Please restart into BootCamp and disable Hibernate and Fast Startup following the below instructions:

1. Open the 'Control Panel ' and click on the 'Power Options'.

2. Click on the 'Choose what the power button does' link on the left side.

3. Click on the 'Change setting that are currently unavailable' link at the top.

4. If prompted by 'UAC', click on Yes.

5. Uncheck Hibernate and Fast Startup and click Save changes.

6. Turn off Windows

7. Try to mount the BootCamp volume

Solution 2

Turn off Hibernation using Command Prompt.

Please restart into BootCamp and disable Hibernate following the below instructions:

• Open Command Prompt as Admin, enter the command below, press Enter.

powercfg -h off

Solution 3

Turn off Hibernation using Registry Editor.

Please restart into BootCamp and disable Hibernate via Registry Editor

1. Press the Windows + R keys to open the Run dialog, type regedit and click on OK.

2. If prompted by UAC, then click/tap on Yes.

3. In Registry Editor, navigate to the following location: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power

 

4. In the right pane of the Power key, double click on HibernateEnabled.

5. Type in 0 and click on OK.

6. Close regedit and restart the computer to apply the changes.