How To Factory Reset A Hp Laptop A Quick Guide

You can use the regular methods for the operating system to reset an HP-made laptop that is running Windows 11 or 10. However, if you’re using a previous version, you can erase your computer and reinstall the operating system using a separate application from HP.

How To Factory Reset an HP Laptop Running Windows 10

To reset an HP laptop that has Windows 10 installed, follow the same steps you would use to reset any other device using Microsoft’s operating system in general. Here’s the quickest and most straightforward method.

1. Connect your PC to the network. While running on battery power, you will be unable to reset the device.

2. To begin, press the Start button.

3. Make a selection from the Settings menu.

4. Select Update & Security from the drop-down menu.

5. Recovery can be found in the left-hand column.

6. Under Reset this PC, select Get Started from the drop-down menu.

7. On the following window, you have two choices:

• Keep my files is a “reinstall-in-place” option that allows you to keep the files you’ve saved on your computer when you reinstall Windows.
• Everything, including your images, documents, and everything else you’ve stored to your hard drive, will be deleted if you select the Remove everything option.

Remove everything from the list if you want a complete factory reset.

8. After that, you can customize how thorough the reset will be by modifying some of the options. Simple deletion of all of your files is the default option. If you aren’t planning on keeping the computer, choose Change options and check the Data erasure box in the following dialogue. Then, to save your changes, click the Confirm button.

Note: Data erasure will take longer to complete, but your information will be protected as a result.

9. Select whether you want to restore Windows to a previous version of the operating system, and then click Reset.

10. You can choose to have your computer remove the data you want, reinstall Windows, and then restart. It will only take a few minutes to complete this process.

How To Factory Reset an HP Laptop Using Windows Recovery Environment

If your laptop is not correctly booting up, it may be preferable to use the Recovery Environment in Windows to perform a factory reset. Windows 11 and Windows 10 follow the same procedure, but the menu items may appear somewhat different on each operating system.

1. To access the Choose an Option screen, restart your computer and press F11 or Shift on your keyboard until the screen appears.

2. Select Troubleshoot from the drop-down menu.

3. Select Reset this computer from the drop-down menu.

4. Select the method by which you want to restore Windows, and then press Next.

• Cloud download is a method of downloading the most recent version of Windows via the web.
• Using the installer from your hard drive to replace Windows, you can save time and money.

Note: Unless your machine is infected with a virus, HP advises local installation.

5. On the following screen, you’ll need to pick what you’re going to do with the information currently stored on your computer.

• Please keep my files. It removes all of the apps you’ve installed and resets all of the settings on your Windows 10 computer, but it retains all of your documents, photographs, and other personal files.
• Remove everything eliminates all of your apps, resets all of your settings to their defaults, and deletes all of your files from your computer.

Note: If you’re not planning on retaining the computer, select Remove everything.

6. If you select Keep my files, your computer will destroy all of your files and reinstall Windows on them. However, if you choose to remove everything, you’ll be faced with a number of other decisions. To begin, select the discs you want to erase. Both Only the drive where Windows is installed and All drives are available to you as options. The second method is more thorough and secure, but it will take longer to complete the process.

7. On the following screen, you have one more option to consider: either simply removing your files or entirely cleaning the drive.
If you are not planning to keep the computer, you can choose the second option, but the process will take at least an hour to finish.

8. Finally, press the Reset button to begin the process of recovering your laptop.