Options
Factory reset equivalent of reformat?
![[Deleted User]](https://wd.vanillicon.com/v2/daa3aa030b908d4efb5347eec8f3f15e.svg)
[Deleted User]
Posts: 4,687 Forum Member
✭✭✭
I found it necessary to reformat my computer earlier so I selected "Remove Everything and Reinstall Windows" from the Change PC Settings option and the computer reset itself to factory settings. However it did not ask for the windows discs as when it completed the reset process it merely asked me to create username/password etc and then reinstalled the Apps and indeed it had reset to factory settings as I then had to customise the computer to remove programmes/apps I don't want like I did when i first bought this machine.
Given that it didn't ask for my Windows discs I am unsure as to whether what my computer did was a reformat, including a full wipe of everything apart from Windows, and if not is there any chance than anything could have not been removed from my computer when it did this factory reset?.
Any clarification of this would be very much appreciated.
Given that it didn't ask for my Windows discs I am unsure as to whether what my computer did was a reformat, including a full wipe of everything apart from Windows, and if not is there any chance than anything could have not been removed from my computer when it did this factory reset?.
Any clarification of this would be very much appreciated.
0
Comments
If, for example, you are getting ready to sell your PC, you want to do a factory restore (as you have done) and then make sure there are no remains of your personal data in the empty space on the disk.
You don't say what version of Windows you have, but Eraser works with Windows 7. http://eraser.heidi.ie. This will overwrite the free space so no trace of former data exists.
Mostly they do a full format but I have heard there are exceptions so as mentioned, wipe free space.
When you did the "Factory Reset" the computer used this Recovery partition to re-install Windows and all the other stuff that was bundled with the computer at the factory. That's why it didn't need any disks, all the data it required is already on the hard drive.
If it did have a Recovery Partition then chances are it did do a full reformat. Though equally it might have done a Quick Format which only wipes the file system "indexes" rather than wipe the whole disk. So there could be remnants of the old data still around but effectively hidden because it's no longer "indexed" so Windows ahs no idea where it is.
If this worries you you could use something like CCleaner which has a Free Space Wipe tool. This wipes all the unused space on the disk which will also get rid of any old data left behind by the reset process.
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download
Just go for the Free version.
I am using Windows 8.
The reason for the reformat was because when I was browsing I noticed that a webpage opened up in a new window. I had not asked the computer to do this and I was worried that I ended up with some kind of nasty despite both AVG and malwarebytes saying that the harddrive contained no nasties, so I thought it best to do a reformat.
The set-up you describe, Chris, is exactly what I have - the main drive on C and the recovery drive on D.
Some sites open links in a new page or a new tab, others don't.
It's nothing to be worried about.
That does not necessarily indicate anything malicious. Depending on the content it could be perfectly benign. It is possible to construct a link on a webpage to make the destination of that link open in a new browser window.
So if it was something you clicked on then it might be perfectly normal behaviour. Depending on what browser you have you might find a settings option to force links to open in a new tab in the same browser window rather than open a new window.
It may well have been nothing malicious but as I said in another reply it seemed wrong. I am using Chrome with Adblock installed
If you just closed the pop-up window and avoided clicking on anything in it then chances are you avoided any nasties. Hopefully if you had AVG and Malwarebytes should have picked them up.
Do you run a pop-up blocker in your browser (might be built in and just needs turning on) and maybe also something like AdBlock Plus to block ads. If someone drops a malicious ad onto a web page having something like AdBlock can give you a certain amount of protection form such things.
https://adblockplus.org/
Posts crossing in the ether, see you might be running adblock anyway.
That's exactly what i did Chris - I closed the pop-up window.
I assume that AdBlock stops pop-up windows but it might be worth checking to be on the safe side.
And regarding my original question, from the extra information given will the factory reset have done what I wanted to achieve by fully removing anything that had previously been on the drive?
If a bit of code gets past the filters then AdBlock won't do anything about it. You need either a built-in pop-up blocker in the browser or some other add on to do the job.
If it did a full format it will have zapped everything. Though you might have noticed if it had as a full format can take some time on modern large capacity drives. If it did a Quick format all that does is wipe the file "index" tables that tell Windows how to find the data. The actual data remains on disk just hidden away from Windows.
When it re-installed everything some of that old data will have been overwritten because as far as Windows is concerned it doesn't exist and the space it occupies is free. However it is possible that not all the old data has been overwritten so some may be recoverable.
If that data was some sort of malicious code then it is effectively dead even though technically it still exists on the drive. But because Windows has no idea where it is it can't be executed. Unless you run a utility that recovers deleted data and restore it.
As posted above there are utilities you can use to wipe the free space on the drive so that all traces of old data are pretty effectively removed permanently.
The reset took about two hours to complete and it took a lot longer than I was expecting as this machine only has a 100 gig hard drive or which around a fifth is taken up with the Recovery D Drive. When I previously did a reformat, which required the discs, it took less than an hour.
The option says I can "remove everything and restore windows" if I want to "recycle my PC or completely start again." When I clicked yes it said that it will "reset my PC" and that "my personal files will be removed" and that "my PC settings will be restored to defaults." I've also checked the Microsoft website and this tells me that "rfefreshing my PC reinstalls Windows and keeps your personal files and settings. It also keeps the applications that came with your PC and the apps you've installed from the Windows Store. Resetting your PC reinstalls Windows but deletes your files, settings and applications – except for the applications that came with your PC. Restoring your PC is a way to undo recent system changes you’ve made."
What I was wanting to happen was a full reformat which would have presumably required me to put in the windows discs to ensure that literally everything was gone and because it would only do a reset I'm not sure if this will have happened, hence my query, and until I know for sure I'm reluctant to put in passwords etc. in case I did get a nasty and that nasty is still there despite the PC doing a reset although I've run full scans with AVG and Malwarebytes since the reset and no threats were detected.
Concerning Adblock, in the past it has asked me if I want to allow pop-ups from individual sites and hopefully this will be the case this time as well. What happened last night wasn't a pop-up in that sense. Instead a webpage was opened in a new window. This had never happened before when using Adblock and there was no reason for this to happen apart from a nasty causing it to happen because I hadn't clicked on anything that would result in a webpage which had nothing to do with the site I was on appearing in a new window..
If what you ran was a recovery utility provided by the computer manufacturer then that may well do something completely different to what might happen if you use a set of Windows disks from Microsoft.
With Microsoft Windows disks you usually get the option to do a full install or what may be described as an upgrade or in-place install. The former will zap the hard drive and install Windows from scratch. The latter just updates the Windows files and does not re-format your drive at all. So all your old data and programs survive (or should do) which is not the case in a full install. In a full install you have to re-install all your programs and restore your data from back-ups as neither will survive the Windows install.
The computer maker's recovery process may be more akin to a Windows Full install in that it wipes the hard drive and uses the Recovery Partition to re-install Windows and all the extra gubbins that gets bundled with a new computer these days. You would still have lost all your self installed programs and data as a result of this.
As I said the Recovery Partition could well include a full Windows installation so no disks required. But it does pretty much the same job.
The key point is, did any of your data survive the process or not? If when the computer booted up after finishing the reset you found all the programs you had installed after you first bought it plus all the data you had created with those programs then the reset did not format the hard drive.
If however all these programs and data have been lost and you had to restore from a back-up then it did do a format. So any nasty you may have picked up is effectively gone. The only real difference is that if the reset did a quick format it might be possible to recover the nasty. If it did a full format chances are it can't be recovered. And even in the case of a quick format the physical bit of disk space it occupied may have been wholly or partially overwritten anyway. But even so it is very unlikely to spontaneously resurrect itself.
Not sure I've seen Adblock ask to allow pop-ups. Unless you are using something different to me that just happens to be called the same thing? AdBlock Plus can be configured to block ads universally or it can be disabled on specific sites or even specific webpages.
A pop-up is a webpage in a new window, usually. Though it is possible to code the pop-up to hide all the stuff that usually appears at the top of a browser window like the address bar and any toolbars etc you have.
And it is not necessary to click on anything to get a pop-up. Merely opening a webpage can trigger a whole load of other actions including opening other windows. If someone has managed to insert a bit of dodgy code into an advert that an innocent webpage uses then who knows what it could pop-up. I believe that DS has had the odd iffy ad served up to it in the past.
And that means that you don't necessarily have to have a nasty lurking on your computer either. It could all have been triggered simply by visiting a webpage with a bit of iffy code on it. No need for anything other than a perfectly innocent browser to set the whole thing off.
Not sure but iirc it took me back to factory settings.
That is exactly what the outcome was. All the stuff that was there when I first started using the computer. but subsequently got rid of, was back but the programmes I installed, such as Chrome, AVG and malwarebytes, was gone.
From what I could gather, none of my data survived the process as all of the programmes I had installed. Also everything saved in Documents was gone. Plus there is now more space on the C Drive than before. From what I know of these things a reformat removes everything, which is what I wanted, and from what I can see, everything, apart from Windows and the pre-installed factory programmes, had gone after this process had completed.
Quick answer is that a factory reset is like an automated version of formatting and reinstalling Windows, drivers and miscellaneous software. It simplifies the entire process for the non-techy people - and allows manufactures to put their junk software back on.
As the other posters have pointed out, restoring the machine due to a single webpage pop-up was undoubtedly overkill, as the same thing is likely to happen if you visit that website again.
The Factory Reset procedure that you ran did exactly what it said on the tin. It has returned your hard drive to the state it was in when it was stuffed into the box in the factory.
To do this it completely wipes the hard drive and uses the data on the recovery partition to re-install a completely fresh copy of Windows. I wouldn't mind betting that in addition to having to put back all your programs and data you have had to sit through (or very soon will do) a shed load of Windows Updates as all of those will have gone as well.
It's perhaps less obvious than if the computer had shipped originally with say Windows 7 and you upgraded it yourself to Windows 8. In that instance it would have been very obvious what had happened as you would now have a Windows 7 computer again.
But because the recovery partition had the same version of Windows as the one on the C: drive it is a bit less obvious.
And yes you're right about the Windows Update as it has found more than 100 updates and they will take several hours to install.
Also thank you Max for your contribution. I can see why you said doing what I did was overkill I prefer to be safe than sorry even if it means having to wait hours for all these Windows Updates to install.
You would need an external USB hard drive for this.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?pws=0&gl=uk&q=howto+make+a+system+image&gws_rd=ssl
No, they do not.
Most (if not all) do a quick format of the partition where Windows lives and restores from an image or scripted installation from a hidden recovery partition. Any old data in sectors not overwritten by data copied from the recovery partition would be easily available.
Eraser can erase free space (be sure to use the option to overwrite cluster tips).
A full format on Windows Vista or later will overwrite the drive with Zeros, so that is a safe way to make sure that no data is recoverable. But you'd have to take the drive out and format in an existing Vista or later computer, then put back in the original machine and use the recovery optical media.