
In either case, back up your files in case something goes awry. The latter, as its name suggests, will delete your files. The former resets your options to default and removes uninstalled apps, like browsers, but keeps your data intact.

Make sure you’ve backed up all of your important data in a cloud service.

That means you should probably consider hiring an expert to finish the data wiping-especially because the government has certain standards for data sanitation, depending on the field you work in. If you only ever really played games or finished school work on your computer, there’s probably little risk in using a factory reset as your primary form of data wiping.īut if you own a company and complete that work on a computer, you may have employees’ social security numbers on the hard drive, for example.
