How Long Does it Take To Factory Reset a Laptop?

Factory Reset a Laptop

If your laptop isn’t working right or has malware that you can’t get rid of with antivirus, it’s a good idea to reset it back to the way it was when you bought it (also known as recovery or delivery status).

But if you do that, you’ll lose all your personal information, such as documents, pictures, downloads, music, videos, and any programs you’ve put on your computer since you bought it.

You should back up all your data online or on an external hard drive before you start working. This means that your files will be safe, and you can continue with the reset.

How Long Does it Take to Perform the Factory Reset?

But how long does it take to reset a laptop to factory settings? Well, unfortunately, this is more of a wildcard question. There is no one right answer.

The whole process of resetting your laptop to factory settings can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours, depending on what operating system you have installed, how fast your processor is, how much RAM you have, and whether your hard drive is HDD or SSD.

In rare cases, it could even take the whole day. The same is true for how long it takes to use the recovery partition; it varies from computer to computer. If you do a clean reinstallation instead, using an installation disc you already made, the whole thing can be done on a fast machine in as little as 20 minutes.

During this process, everything is erased, including the extra programs that the manufacturer put on.

If your device doesn’t start up anymore, a Linux CD can help. However, programs that have already been installed can’t be saved this way. After going back to the factory settings, you will have to reinstall these by hand.

how long factory reset

Keep your Windows activation key handy because you will need it after a fresh install.

Different Ways of Performing a Factory Reset

I’ll walk you through a few different ways you can try to reset your machine to factory settings.

Scenario # 1 – Press the Function key when booting

Some laptop companies put a message on the screen as soon as you turn on the machine. You will also see which function key to press to get to the settings. Most of the time, it says “Press F10 for Recovery” or something similar. Then, you can choose from the options given by the manufacturer to factory reset your device.

how long factory reset

Scenario # 2 – Press special key when the device is switched off

There are special keys on the keyboard for some brands. On Sony laptops, this button is next to the power button and is called “Assist.” On Lenovo laptops, it is called the “Novo button.” This is either next to the power button, near the outlet, or somewhere else. When you want to turn off your laptop, you press this key. Only then will the device turn on, and a menu that leads to the recovery function will be shown (factory settings).

Scenario # 3 – If Windows is still working (Assuming you have windows 10)

The easiest thing to do is probably to reset Windows through the settings. Click on the Windows logo in the bottom left corner and “Settings.”

f that doesn’t work, you can also open the settings by pressing Windows + i. Now, click “Update and Security” and then “Restore.” Click “Let’s go” under “Reset this PC.”

Click “Keep my files” in the next window if you still need your files. This option will delete apps and settings, but personal files will remain. If you don’t need your data anymore, you can choose “Remove all.” Then the PC or laptop will be turned back on. Most of the time, this takes some time.

You’ll have to install your programs and drivers again when the process is done. Since this can take some time, you can get a backup program ahead of time to help you do it.

Scenario # 4 – Booting with a USB stick

how long factory reset

If Windows doesn’t start anymore, you can use a disc you’ve already made to fix it, restore the system to a certain date, or the factory settings (illustrated guide) in the startup environment.

Scenario # 5 – If nothing else works, a fresh Windows install will do the trick

If you can’t start your PC at all and also can’t get into the repair wizard, the only thing that will help is a fresh installation. Go to the official Microsoft website from a different device and download the Media Creation Tool. Then you can use the tool to make Windows 10 installation discs.

Either burn it to a DVD or move it to a USB drive with enough space. Then put the DVD or stick it into the DVD drive or USB port. While starting up, press the F key that the PC or laptop’s maker told you.

Then, in the boot menu, choose the right drive. Click Troubleshoot in the Advanced Startup Options, then click Reset this PC.

If using the Media Creation Tool to reinstall Windows 10 doesn’t work, you can also use an ISO file to do so. To do this, you need to download the file for installing Windows.

All of your information will be lost if you use this method. Once you’ve downloaded the ISO file, all you have to do to start the new installation is double-click it.

“Safe Mode” is one way to fix Windows 10 problems when it doesn’t start. In our help article, you can find out how to get into Safe Mode.

Remember that when you reinstall Windows, your BitLocker recovery key will change. We have an article at aka.ms/recoverykeyfaq that tells you how to get your key back, but if you wrote it down, don’t forget to change it.

Final Words

You changed your mind and didn’t want to return your PC to the way it was when it came out of the box? You can get to everything if you have already backed up your data to an external hard drive or another storage device.

If you did the restore in Safe Mode, you can’t take it back.If you did the restore through System Restore, you can’t take it back.

If you installed the Windows 10 upgrade on top of Windows 7 or 8 at that time, you could no longer go back to the factory settings. You might have to install Windows 10 by hand in this case.

How long it takes for the process to finish depends greatly on how fast your machine can send and receive data. This depends on whether you have a hard drive or a solid-state drive. Also Check This : support.microsoft.com

Back in the day, most computers had HDD drives, which made it take a long time to reset a laptop to its factory settings.

SSDs are now cheap and come pre-installed on most laptops. This has cut the time it takes to reset a laptop to factory settings to just a few minutes. For More Information Visit : aka.ms/mcmultiplayerhelp.info

FAQs

The Just Remove My Files option will take about two hours, while the Fully Clean The Drive option can take up to four hours.
When you sell or get rid of your computer, it’s a good idea to reset it to factory settings. This is true for both Macs and Windows PCs. It doesn’t matter if you use it daily for important work or sometimes to look at pictures. Your device probably has a lot of private and important information on it.
Resetting a computer could take anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours, but it depends on many things. Like what kind of storage device you’re using, how much data is on your computer, and how many files you don’t want to lose.

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