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HP Recommended

trying to factory reset but saying need to free up space

3 REPLIES 3
HP Recommended

@reevma2 

You've given us NO INFORMATION to work with!  At the very least, we need the model number of the laptop, the OS version it is running, and WHY you're trying to do a factory reset.

 

If it's an HP Stream, know in advance that you can NOT do a factory reset without external media -- because there is simply no way with only 32GB of "disk space" to start with, you can free up 20GB of that and still have a running OS.



I am a volunteer and I do not work for, nor represent, HP
HP Recommended

yes its an hp stream 11 and doing it because i want to wipe it and i have a usb 

HP Recommended

@reevma2 

If the plan is to WIPE it because your plan is to sell it, and you want to remove all your Personal stuff from it -- you need to know that a factory reset does not WIPE the drive!  All it does is reformat it, and any decent file recovery app could then be run by the new owner to retrieve most, if not all, of your personal information.  If you're not concerned about this, then go ahead and do the factory reset.

 

To do a factory reset, you need to create HP Recovery Media using the information below, boot from that USB stick and do the reset from there:

 

If your PC is a 2016 model or newer, you should see if you can make a bootable USB recovery drive using the HP cloud recovery tool on a working PC.

The recovery drive can then be used to install Win10 and the HP drivers and utilities that originally came with your PC.

Here is the link: https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c06162205

 

If you really want your data WIPED, then you would have to go online to one of the data partitioning vendor sites and download the files they provide to make a bootable USB for your Stream, boot the Stream from that, and use their app to do a data wipe of the drive.  You could then do the factory restore using the HP media and rest assured that NONE of your personal data carried over to the restore.



I am a volunteer and I do not work for, nor represent, HP
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