When is it time to hibernate?

I recently set my XP Pro T60p to go into hibernation after an hour.

Isn't that supposed to be conditional on having no programs running at the time? It shut down an active running program, disconnected a password protected flash drive that was being accessed by the program and nothing (other than the system itself) came back up when I restarted it.

Isn't that hour on the timer supposed to to be an hour of inactivity?

 

Inactivity is generally lack of keyboard/mouse input, as theres always programs running on a machine.

 

You've seen why hibernation isn't the best way to suspend the system while you are still working. Use Sleep - that won't cause any problems.