Possible Duplicate:
What is the difference between (these four) sleep states?
What are the sleep modes and standby modes in Windows?
How can you differentiate them?
What are the sleep modes and standby modes in Windows?
Standby is known as 'sleep' mode. In 'Stand by' mode, Windows OS turns off non-essential hardware resources such as hard disk, removable disks, monitor. The system is then able to reactivate very quickly when you press any key or move the mouse. FYI - You cannot power-off the system in 'Stand by' mode.
from Microsoft:
Sleep is a power-saving state that allows a computer to quickly resume full-power operation (typically within several seconds) when you want to start working again. Putting your computer into the sleep state is like pausing a DVD player—the computer immediately stops what it’s doing and is ready to start again when you want to resume working.
Check this Sleep and hibernation at microsoft website to know more about these.
How can you differentiate them?
theres normal standby (ram is powered), hibernate (sleep) where the contents of ram are stored on the hdd and hybrid where the ram-content is keept and additionally written to disk (to prevent data loss on power outage)