To save the unsaved data in Azure Windows VM before a scheduled shutdown

Question

How can we make sure to save the unsaved data (data that isn't saved by user yet) before the system goes through a scheduled shutdown

I have tried to enable the "hibernation" feature on the Windows VM. Hibernation allows the system state, including open documents and unsaved data, to be saved to disk and restored when the VM is powered on again. For that I used powercfg /h on command in command prompt but it returned an error saying "the system firmware does not support hibernation". It means that hibernation is not supported by the hardware or system configuration of Azure VMs due to the underlying virtualization infrastructure and the ability to quickly provision and deprovision VMs. So, I was either expecting an alternative solution to save the unsaved data in a Azure Windows VM or a work around this to enable hibernation.

Answer 1

When I try to run windows 10 powercfg /hibernate on I got the same error:

Hibernation failed with the following error: The request is not supported. The following items are preventing hibernation on this system. The system firmware does not support hibernation.

Note : Windows 10 does not support hibernation you can make if windows 11 vm like below:

powercfg.exe /hibernate on

Alternatively, you can make use of Task scheduler that allows the system state, including open documents and unsaved data, to be saved to disk and restored when the VM is powered on again.

In computer management -> Task scheduler -> create task

You can select on schedule daily basis or on disconnect from user session

In Action items browse your location like below:

Once complete you can see active task and my files are open after powered on again:

References:

How to create an automated task using Task Scheduler on Windows 10 | by Windows Central

Azure-docs/articles/backup/backup-azure-system-state.md at main · MicrosoftDocs/azure-docs · GitHub by v-dirichard