How to Factory Reset an HP Laptop on Windows 10/8/7

By Samuel Spenser Published on June 13,2022Windows Tips

Factory reset a PC can be an efficient and ultimate solution to fix those stubborn system issues and wipe all data for selling. The HP laptops are shipped with a recovery partition on Windows 7 and later OS versions. That feature can reinstall the operating system by preserving your personal data safely.

That’s what you shall follow, 2 ways to factory reset an HP laptop step by step, even without a password.

Part 1. Why Do You Do a Factory Reset on HP Laptop?

There are various reasons for resetting an HP laptop to factory defaults, and they can be concluded as follows:

1. System errors. Windows get stuck in some system errors or application conflicts, and fail to work, like an audio driver cannot be installed, missing USB drivers, Windows white screen, etc. To fix such a Windows system error, a factory reset is a good solution.

2. Storage is full. An old HP laptop may collect different types of junk files on your hard drive, and the computer runs slowly. Cleaning up data and get more storage via resetting HP PC is a recommended way.

3. Sell your old HP laptop. When you want to sell an old HP laptop PC, factory reset is an ideal solution to wipe all the personal data and settings in it.

No matter why you want to factory reset an HP laptop, you can have a choice of 2 methods to do a reset on an HP laptop in the next parts.

There’s only one caveat: Just backup all the important files on an external hard drive before resetting it, because resetting your HP PC can remove all the files on the hard drive.

Part 2. How to Factory Reset HP Laptop via Settings

How to Factory Reset HP Laptop with Password

If your HP computer loads correctly and you can log in to your PC, learn from this method to restore HP laptop to factory settings via Settings.

A cloud download can download the latest Windows OS from Microsoft, but it needs an HP laptop with storage of over 32GB for more than 45 minutes to download. So, HP recommends you to select Local Reinstall.

Both options will remove all apps and drivers you installed, delete all the changes to settings and uninstall all HP apps that came preinstalled on your PC on Windows 10.

The only difference is whether it will keep your personal files intact or not.

Then it will take some time to perform the HP reset, and your laptop will reboot after a successful reset.

Bonus: Use a World-class Tool to Reset HP Admin Password

When you forgot HP laptop password, you cannot log in to your Windows PC. To fix this issue, you can rely on imyPass Windows Password Reset to remove the Admin password from your HP computer and help you factory reset it without hassle.

Step 1 Create a bootable disk from CD/DVD or USB drive

Download and run this program on an available computer. You can choose one way to create a bootable disk: CD/DVD or USB flash drive. Then, insert a blank CD/DVD drive or USB flash drive into this computer to start burning.

Step 2 Boot your locked HP laptop

Plug the burned disk into your HP laptop where you forgot the password. Restart your HP laptop and press F12 on the keyboard to enter the Boot Menu. Then, use the arrow-down /up keys to highlight the burned disk. After that, press Enter in the Boot Menu interface, Save and Exit.

Step 3 Remove forgotten password on HP laptop

Once your HP laptop reboots, the interface of this software will be loaded.

Select the operating system if you have installed more OS versions, and the user account under the Windows OS for your HP PC.

Then, click Reset Password and OK in the popup window to remove the current password and set it to be blank.

Finally, just eject the burned disk and reboot your HP laptop, and you can follow the steps above to factory reset the HP laptop. Besides, this program supports all brands. For example, it resets the Acer laptop with the same steps.

Part 3. How Do You Factory Reset HP Laptop from Windows Recovery Environment

If your HP laptop gets a system error and cannot load or start correctly, just reset it from Windows Recovery Environment.

Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) is a recovery environment that can repair common unbootable operations systems. By default, WinRE is preloaded into the Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016 installations.

Then you will get a WinRE tools partition on either UEFI and BIOS-based devices based on your HP PC motherland.

Conclusion

Factory reset an HP laptop is an efficient solution to fix system and application errors and wipe data for selling a PC. This page shows 2 methods to restore an HP laptop to factory settings via settings and Windows Recovery Environment. Besides, you can use imyPass Windows Password Reset to reset the Admin password without hassle.