IMac does not hibernate anymore after Mavericks installation

It sounds like your battery is in bad shape. Your MBP goes to sleep and when it runs out of juice it simply dies.

If that's not the case - meaning the battery got's juice after a hard reset (holding power button for 5+ secs) without hanging to power supply then: First check if there are any Firmware updates. Then try the following:

Open up a Terminal in /Applications/Utilities/Terminal and to disable hibernation type:

sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0

then remove any trace of previous hibernations:

rm /private/var/vm/sleepimage

After that reset the SMC aka System Management Controller:

MBP with removable battery:

• Shut down the computer.
• Disconnect the power adapter
• Remove the battery.
• Press and hold the power for at least for 5 seconds.
• Release the power button.
• Reconnect the battery
• Turn on the computer.

MBP with non removable battery:

• Shut down the computer.
• Plug in the MagSafe power adapter if not already connected.
• Press the Shift-Control-Option left side keys and the power button at the same time.
• Release all the keys and the power button at the same time.
• Turn on the computer.

The LED on the MagSafe may change states - if so it means your SMC reset was successfull. To enable Safe Sleep again open Terminal and sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 3. Hope that help's.

Update To have total control of Sleep try this http://semaja2.net/insomniaxinfo

I've the same problem using late 2008 Macbook Pro running 10.8.3 and have decided to keep the HDD in the shock mounted area due to superior protection.

I've got a Sandisk SSD installed in the optibay and the original HD in the main bay. Deep sleep worked fine with just the hard disk installed. Now that I've cloned it and boot from the SSD instead, the Macbook refuses to go into deep sleep. Instead it sits there in normal sleep mode with the white light on the front of the machine flashing.

I tried moving the sleep image to the HD but got the same crash that you experienced. Mind you, the man page for pmset does state that it has to be on the root drive!

I'm reluctant to swap the disks round because the main bay offers better shock protection for hard disks with the rubber mounts. Looks like I'm stuck with the problem unless Apple fix things.

As it stands, you need to choose either sleep compatibility or shock protection when connecting a SSD and HDD to a MacBook Pro.