[Answered] Does a Factory Reset Delete Everything Windows 10?

What is factory reset?

A factory reset is a restoration of a device to its original system state. You can use it to help you get rid of some troubles like your PC gets slow, becomes freezing, or keeps crashing. Besides, factory resets can also be used to prepare your Windows 10 computer for sale, destruction, purchase, or donation.

However, when it comes to resetting Windows 10 to the factory, you may ask: Does a factory reset delete everything? Or in other words, what does factory reset delete?

Well, what to be erased by a factory reset include:

✘ Any apps or games you installed on the device.
✘ All the personal files like photos, videos, and messages.
✘ All settings that are in accordance with your personal preferences

In a nutshell, doing a resetting is to erase everything that was not originally on your Windows 10, making your device look like it was when you bought it.

Does a factory reset delete everything Windows 10?

From the above content, we have clearly known what does factory reset delete, which may help us answer the question: Does resetting to factory settings delete everything on PC? It's very likely, but there are still chances to keep them.

Taking Windows 10 as an example, when you run a factory reset on Windows 10, it allows you to choose to keep your files or delete everything.

✦ If you plan to sell/donate/throw away your computer, please select the "Remove everything" option.
✦ If you just reset Windows 10 for speed and function improvement, the option "Keep my files" is more suitable.

Although you can restore the deleted files after a factory reset via a professional data recovery tool, it's still recommended to back up the files you want to keep in case of any accidents during the resetting process. AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional is exactly a good helper for your data security.

It can help you protect your data by cloning systems, programs, or files from one drive to another (whether internal or external hard drive). If the source drive is damaged while doing a factory reset, you can restore the data from the cloned one.

The steps to clone hard drive Windows 10 are as follows:

Step 1. Prepare a new hard drive and connect it to your Windows 10 computer. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional on the PC as well. On the main interface, click "Clone" > "Clone Disk".

Step 2. Choose the hard disk that you need to clone as the source disk and click "Next".

Step 3. Select another drive as the destination disk, and then click "Next".

Step 4. Then, you can check the source and destination disk in the next window or change to "Sector to Sector clone", and click the "Confirm" button to continue if there is no problem.

Here, you can also click the "Settings" button to adjust the partition size on the destination disk or tick "4k alignment" to improve the reading and writing speed of the SSD. 

Step 5. After returning to the main interface, check the pending operation and click "Apply" and "Proceed" to commit the operation.

How to factory reset your Windows 10?

So far, we have discussed what the factory reset is and does a factory reset delete everything. Here, we’ll guide you on how to factory reset Windows 11/10 in a few simple steps.

Step 1. Press the "Windows + I" keys together to open Windows settings and click "System" > "Recovery" > "Reset PC".

Step 2. Then, you will be shown two options: Keep my files or Remove everything. Choose one based on your need.

Step 3. Follow the next prompts and read the instruction carefully to begin resetting your PC. This process may take around 2 hours to finish.

Further reading: Safe way to wipe computer data completely

If you are 100% sure that you no longer need the data on your hard drive and don’t want to spend much time on doing a factory reset, keep reading to get an easier way to completely wipe the data from your computer.

An attractive feature called "Wipe partition" in AOMEI Partition Assistant is an ideal choice to help erase all the data on a partition safely and permanently. Only in three clicks, the selected partition will become an unallocated space as soon as it has been wiped. Make sure you really want to wipe the partition because the erased data is irrecoverable.

Step 1. Open AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional. Select a partition that you want to wipe, right-click on it, and choose the "Wipe Partition" option.

Step 2. In the pop-up window, choose a wiping method according to your needs. Click "OK" to continue.

Step 3. Finally, click "Apply" on the toolbar to execute the operation.

Conclusion

This article gives you the answer to does a factory reset delete everything and shows you how to reset Windows 10 to its factory settings. It also provides you with an easier way to delete personal information without performing a factory reset.