How to Factory Reset Your HP Laptop? [Tested Methods]

For the last couple of years or more, your HP laptop or even dell may have been serving you as a staunch companion.

Furthermore, you may have customized it in any way you liked: your preferred wallpaper, preferred gaming optimization, or even your default apps. But while having all this fun, you forgot that your device might be overburdened at times.

That’s how technology is. It needs a fresh start too. Given a lot of burden of personal customization can sometimes lead to the laptop going cuckoo at some points.

This brings us to the point of this article. The machine is now not running as effortlessly as it once used to. Sudden operating system crashes and lags may also force you to bring it back to its initial performance levels.

Last but not least, you may be willing to sell it off after deciding on a more recent model available.

YES! It needs a factory reset.

But there are several ways one can reset his/her HP laptop to factory settings. In the next few minutes, I’ll ensure that I transfer my knowledge of the best possible way how to factory reset your HP laptop and get your HP laptop back on track.

How to Factory Reset Your HP Laptop? – Windows 10

In this section, the underlying assumption is that you have no problem logging into your system, and all you need is a fresh start with your device.

For this, Windows 10 has a built-in reset feature available that lets you back up and restore your windows operating system bringing it back to its factory default settings.

Press Start and type “Reset” or “Reset this PC” on the search bar.
Select the option “Reset this PC.”
Under the Recovery Section, select “Get Started.”

This brings you to an irreversible decision that you may want to make very carefully. You either choose to:

Keep Your Files

If you intend to keep this laptop for further long-term use and the only reason you initiated this factory reset was to improve the device’s performance, you should click on “Keep your files.”

Remove Everything

This option is to be selected in the following scenarios:
You plan to sell the laptop and clear everything from the machine
You have made a backup of all your critical files and want a fresh start.

Once you choose either of the options, then follow the remaining on-screen instructions and let Windows 10 do the rest of the work for you.

“Voila! You now have a Refreshed HP laptop at your disposal.”

Problem with This Method:

As mentioned earlier, the above-given method works only if you have no problems logging into your system as this feature is within the operating system.

However, if your device is password-protected, and you somehow have forgotten your login password, then this method is null and void.

But we’ve got you covered here too. From here onwards, you’ll be reading methods to reset your HP laptop if you don’t have your login password available with you.

Two main scenarios are discussed where one may decide to try removing the login password or ultimately avoid the login screen and directly boot up the resetting process.

You may also like the best and most optimized OS for Gaming.

Factory Reset your HP Laptop – by Removing the Login Password

Many users in today’s cyber-rich environment are concerned about the safety of their data.

Therefore, most of them have resorted to keeping login passwords at the startup of their devices. This way, they ensure that their data is protected from any sort of cybercrime.

Hence, when the user plans to reset the device and uses external help for it, they are reluctant to give their password to the technician.

Now, you are in a situation where you have a password-protected HP laptop in front of you, and all you want to do is reset the entire settings of the device.

For this, you will have to first install “Windows Password Refixer” on any windows-based laptop. Then follow these steps:

Burn the Password Refixer Software on a USB Flash Drive.

Once installed, insert a USB drive into this system and use the Windows built-in function to burn the software onto the flash drive.

Also, ensure the flash drive is bootable so that you may load it directly from the bootloader of your HP laptop that needs the reset.

Insert USB on the password-protected HP laptop and use the F11 key to “boot from the USB drive.”

You may have to repeatedly press the F11 key to launch the bootloader menu. Once the menu pops up, select “Boot from USB drive” and press enter. If burned correctly in the previous step, the Windows Password Refixer will begin to run on your HP device now.

Follow the Instructions and Select the “Reset Password” Button to Remove the Password.

After a few minutes, the software will prompt a device restart option. Select Yes and be sure to remove the USB drive from the laptop. Now the system will normally load and welcome you to the login screen.

This time around, if all steps above were followed correctly, you will see no password protection on the login screen, and you may enter the operating system now.

From here onwards, as mentioned in the first option at the beginning of the article, use the Windows search bar to go into the reset settings menu and so on. (Refer to the first method written above).

Factory Reset your HP Laptop – without Password

Now comes the scenario where you don’t intend to go through the hassle of installing the software on another PC. Then burn it on the USB and go through the steps mentioned above.

In this case, you may have to use the “Recovery Environment” alternative option.

Once you start booting up your device, repeatedly press the F11 key until you see a screen with multiple options on it.
Choose the “Troubleshoot” option from the screen and select “Reset this PC.”
Now, once again, the system asks you to decide whether you have to keep your files or completely flash the entire machine. You select either “Keep files” or “Clean Everything.”
From here onwards, follow the on-screen instructions and confirm with resetting. Then sit back and relax. A few minutes later, you will have a refreshed Windows Laptop.

How to Factory Reset HP Laptop from BIOS

The term BIOS is the abbreviation of Basic Input/Output System. It is basically a ROM chip found on your motherboard that enables your system to perform and load your device’s basic hardware.

To summarize BIOS in a nutshell, it has 4 primary functions in your laptop:

POST – checks and runs quick tests on your computer hardware to ensure everything is in order before continuing to load the operating system.
Bootstrap Loader – to identify the operating system and initiate the process of loading it.
BIOS drivers – basic level drivers to give processing power to your computer hardware.
BIOS setup – setup program that enables configuration settings for your hardware.

The reason behind these details is to conclude to the point that throughout your HP laptop’s usage, certain upgrades may have resulted in the dysfunctional performance of your BIOS.

To reset your laptop, one may use the option of resetting their BIOS settings to default. This way, all basic setup settings will be refreshed, and you may get your desired performance from your device.

Consider the following steps in order to reset your HP laptop from BIOS.

Boot up your device and repeatedly press the F10 key.
You may have to wait a few seconds on a black screen before your PC loads a blue BIOS setup screen
Hit the F9 key once your BIOS screen loads up.
This commands the BIOS system to reset all settings to default
Select “Yes.”
Before resetting to default, a confirmation dialogue screen appears.
Press the F10 Key and Save settings.
Select Yes when prompted to save.

After going through the aforementioned steps, your machine will reboot. You will feel your operating system loading a bit quicker than before.

Consider Other Options

You initially were looking for a way to improve your HP laptop’s performance, and hence, you plan on Factory resetting the device.

I would like you to understand the fact that there could be several other reasons for your HP laptops’ degraded performance.

Consequently, there are other easier ways to restore your machine’s optimal performance rather than going through the reset process.

Drivers Update

For starters, you may want to have a look at your device drivers. In some cases, your HP laptop may perform underwhelmingly due to its drivers not being up to date with the currently available upgrades.

You may rely on Windows to automatically detect available driver updates on the net and push the install onto your system:

Right Click on ‘This PC’ and select Properties
On the right side, under the Related settings menu, click on Device Manager
If there is an indication of a particular driver being outdated, click on it and select Update Driver
Windows will look for the latest available driver update on the internet and automatically install it for you.

Or you may go to the official website www.hp.com and ask the website to scan your PC for driver upgrades. This way, you can manually update your device drivers to the latest available software.

In case, you’re a beginner then you can also read, taking screenshots of HP laptops.

Conclusion

We, as humans, tend to underperform when overburdened with tons of load and work. Similarly, our HP laptops may also go bizarre when a lot is asked of them without a break.

I hope this article has helped you gain knowledge on how to Factory reset your HP Laptop if you feel the need to do so. Other than factory resetting: