Whats hybernate, sleep, shut down?

Shutdown means the computer is completely turned off. No data is kept in memory and not power is being consumed by the machine. When you start it up it has to go through the whole process of booting and loading your operating system.

Hybernate/sleep/stand by are usually different levels of power management. Screens are usually turned off if its a laptop but enough power is being consumed so the computer can remember where it was prior to being placed in that mode. Operating system is still loaded, applications are still running. The machine is still on trying to use minimal power essentially hybernating as the name implies.

I see.. a little more information on the difference between hybernate vs. stand by.

What components are "energized" and what components are turned off during these 2 stages?

Rather than turning on and off my computer everyday, would it be safer to just hybernate?  365 days = 365+ times my computer will be turned on and off.

Probably a better explanation here.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/evaluation/overviews/fastresume.asp

What do you mean Safer?

safer = better for the computer and its hardware

As far as I know, Hibernate is exactly the same as a full shutdown and therefore leaves NOTHING powered on. What Hibernate actually does is to copy the entire state of the computer to a file on the hard drive (usually called HIBERFIL.SYS) before shutting down--it's quicker for it to load this single large file than to go through the normal Windows bootup process of jumping all over the hard drive for lots of small files.

Then why would anybody opt for a shutdown if they can go through hybernation?

Thanks for keeping on answering all my questions.