“Keep my files”
Reinstalls Windows and preserves personal folders. Applications and settings go; documents and photographs stay. The least destructive, and files removed by it are usually recoverable.
Least destructive
The options are presented as near-identical choices in the same dialogue, and they produce completely different outcomes. On an SSD the difference between them is the difference between recoverable and gone.
Where a device encrypts by default — every recent phone and Mac — a reset throws away the key and that is genuinely the end of it. Where it does not, the reset simply marks the space reusable.
The wording varies by version, but the underlying behaviour falls into these.
Reinstalls Windows and preserves personal folders. Applications and settings go; documents and photographs stay. The least destructive, and files removed by it are usually recoverable.
Deletes the index and marks the space reusable without overwriting. On a hard drive, data remains physically present and recovers well. Takes minutes.
Overwrites the volume as well, which is why it takes hours rather than minutes. Designed for machines being sold on, and it does what it says.
TRIM erases the freed blocks physically in the background, usually within minutes. The distinction above largely stops mattering — the erasure is genuine.
The single most reliable indicator, and it costs nothing to recall.
A quick reset completes in minutes because it only rewrites structures. A full clean takes hours because it writes across the entire volume — frequently displaying a progress percentage that moves slowly and steadily.
So if the machine was ready to use again inside half an hour, it was almost certainly the quick version and your data is very likely still physically present on a hard drive. If it sat there most of an afternoon, expect considerably less.
On an SSD the timing tells you less, because TRIM does its work in the background regardless of which option was chosen. What matters there is how long the machine has been powered since — and the answer is usually ‘too long’, because a reset is followed by setting the machine up again.
A freshly reset computer is downloading updates, installing applications and creating profiles — all of it writing into exactly the space your old files occupy. Shut it down.
OneDrive, Google Drive, iCloud and Microsoft account backups frequently hold more than people remember. Check from another device rather than by signing in on the reset machine.
Each pass writes more. If the first reset was the quick kind, a second one on top substantially reduces what remains.
Take the drive out and read it externally, or use recovery software installed elsewhere. Never install the tool onto the drive you are recovering.
It depends which option was used. “Keep my files” preserves personal folders; “remove everything” without cleaning deletes the index and leaves data recoverable on a hard drive; cleaning the drive overwrites it and does not.
By how long it took. A quick reset completes in minutes because it only rewrites structures. A full clean takes hours because it writes across the whole volume. If the machine was usable again within half an hour, it was the quick version.
Usually not, and time matters more than the option chosen. TRIM erases the freed blocks physically within minutes of the reset, and that erasure is genuine. A machine powered on since is unlikely to hold much.
Shut it down. A freshly reset machine downloads updates, installs applications and creates profiles — all writing into the space your old files occupy. Every minute powered on reduces what remains.
No, and it makes things worse. Each pass writes more over the areas holding your old data. If the first reset was the recoverable kind, a second one substantially reduces what is left.
On a hard drive after a quick reset, frequently a great deal — though usually carved without original filenames or folder structure, since the index was replaced. Check your cloud accounts first; they often hold more than people remember.