How to Recover Files After Factory Reset Laptop/PC [Solved]

Part 1. Overview of Data Loss After Factory Reset

"My Dell laptop was severely infected by unknown malware and viruses, and antivirus software did not help eventually. For the last hope, I reset Dell to factory settings. Unfortunately, many programs, data, and personal files were erased after the factory reset. Can I use data recovery software to get them back?" - EaseUS

"I have today restored my computer to factory default and have lost all my pictures, files, etc any idea how I can retrieve them at all I have pictures I have had for years all installed on there any help much appreciated" - Cnet 

How many of you did a factory reset on a laptop but forgot to backup important files on it? To tell the truth, it's not a wise option to factory restore a PC or laptop without transferring personal files to an external USB flash drive or external hard drive, because data will be completely removed once you choose to reset the machine. However, in many events, we need to do a reset. For example, a laptop's performance is getting worse and worse, with virus problems or just need to wipe programs' settings, passwords or other sensitive data before sending it away or selling it to other people. 

Part 2. Chances of File Recovery After Factory Reset

According to the first part, you will certainly lose your files after the factory reset. The factory reset is mainly for C drive. The process of the factory reset is this:

• Reformat the C drive - Restore the system with a backup - Restart after restore

Basically, after doing a factory reset, the laptop will completely remove all post-installed programs, applications, games or personal documents, pictures, music or movies off from the machine. As a result, some of the data will be overwritten. What's worse, the file system of the original lost file will be corrupted. But this doesn't mean that you lose the chance to recover wanted files after a factory reset. You still have a chance to recover files that may not have been overwritten.

The only chance is using EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard. It's professional in the data recovery field and has helped millions of customers successfully recover lost data in an easy way. This reliable hard disk data recovery software can recover your lost files via RAW.

What's more, it has some excellent features:

• Recover data from a dead/corrupted hard drive
• Recover photos, audio, music, and emails from any storage device
• Convert RAW to NTFS without losing data
• Recover deleted, formatted, and inaccessible data easily

Part 3. Recover Files After Factory Reset Laptop Without Backup

Since EaseUS disk data recovery software is the only one that meets your demands perfectly, you should restore your data as soon as possible. Download it to recover lost files after factory reset laptop HP, Dell, Toshiba, Acer, Asus, Lenovo, Sony, Samsung, etc. with the detailed guide below.

Also read: How to Recover Data after Factory Reset Samsung Galaxy

Step 1. Run EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard on your computer. Choose the drive where you lost files and click "Scan". If your lost files were on an external storage device, connect it to your computer firstly.

Step 2. The software will quickly scan the deleted files immediately, and then automatically perform a deep scan to find more lost files. After the scan is completed, you can use "Filter" to quickly filter specific file types.

Step 3. Click the "Preview" button or double-click on a file for a full preview. Finally, select the desired files, click "Recover" and choose another safe location to save all the files at once.

Part 4. Factory Reset Windows 10 Laptop/PC Without Losing Data

If your computer isn't running the way it should, giving you strange errors or performing slowly, then it's probably time for a reset. Resetting your PC or restoring to an earlier state can clean out any pesky background programs and wipe your computer's hard drive of any unneeded files. Before you take any actions and when your PC is running smoothly, you should back up wanted data as soon as possible, especially, the C drive data. Copying the data to an external hard drive is a nice idea. Then, you will be able to reset your device.

Also read: Backup Files Before Factory Reset Windows 10

The operating system provides a number of options that let you reset your Windows 10 computer to an earlier state. Here's how to reset your Laptop/PC in Windows 10 easily.

Step 1. Navigate to "Settings > Update & security > Recovery > Reset this PC > Get started".

Step 2. Click either "Keep my files" or "Remove everything". It depends on whether you want to keep your data files intact. Either way, all of your settings will return to their defaults and apps will be uninstalled. 

Step 3. If you chose "Remove everything" in the prior step, select"only the drive where Windows is installed" or "All drives"

Step 4. Select "Just remove my files" or "Remove files and clean the drive". If you are giving the computer away, the next person can't recover your erased files. If you are keeping the computer, choose "Just remove my files."

Step 5. Click "Reset" when prompted. Windows will then restart and take several minutes to reset itself.

After this process, you can bring back the external hard drive data or restore your backup if you need them.

Conclusion

Having a backup in advance can always do you a great favor. If you want to factory reset your laptop when your OS is running slow or caught a virus, make sure that you've already had a backup. If you don't have a backup and you have performed the factory reset, you should try EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard (details are in Part 3) to get back lost files as soon as possible. This useful tool offers excellent performance as well as simple operations.