Hibernation woes

[Keith Clark]

I just tried to put my desktop computer into hibernation by pressing the
half moon key as I would have done in XP.  All seemed well, as the
computer shut itself down in a matter of 10-15 seconds.

Then, I tried to restart it by hitting the power button, like I would
have done in XP.  Well, the system churned away and churned away.  The
cursor would respond erratically.  Finally a password window came up and
I entered my password.  It accepted it and a black screen came up.  All
this time the hard drive is going crazy with activity.  This went on for
about 15 minutes when I finally shut it down and restarted it.

What was going on here?  Does hibernation work?  I thought it would be a
faster way compared to the shut down and reboot option.

Thanks,

Keith