Many Windows 10 users encounter situations where they need to completely delete system data and restore default settings. Whether it’s to protect privacy, prevent data leaks, or resolve issues like slow system performance or disorganized settings, resetting Windows 10 is the simplest and most efficient solution.
By selecting the “Remove files and clean the drive” option, you can not only erase all saved data but also restore the system to its initial state.
About Windows 10 Reset
When your computer is running slow, working incorrectly, or having some other odd issues related to your system, you can reset your Windows 10 to the default settings. This is a feature named Reset this PC included in Windows 10 Recovery options.
If you reset Windows 10, your computer will start fresh with a new installation, but also let you choose to whether keep your files or remove them, providing two resetting options Keep my files and Remove everything.
Which option should you choose? Keep on your reading to get detailed information about these two options.
Keep My Files
“Keep my files” option will remove your installed apps, programs, and personalized settings but keep your saved personal files. This option was previously known as Refresh your PC.
After you choose this option, you will see the current resetting settings. You can click Change settings to enable or disable the Preinstalled apps option to configure whether to restore preinstalled apps/settings or not. If it is on, your computer will restore apps/settings which came with this PC. Otherwise, all the apps including those your PC manufacturer installed will be removed.
Then, you will be informed about what exactly resetting Windows do. Apart from whether to restore the preinstalled apps, your computer will do the following operations:
- Remove changes you have made to system settings.
- Install a fresh copy of Windows 10 and keeps your personal files.
- Remove apps, programs, and drivers you have installed.
It is worth mentioning that you can click List of apps to be removed to figure out the affected items.
Related article: Windows 10 Reset VS Clean Install VS Fresh Start, Detailed Guide!
Remove Everything
As its name indicates, the “Remove everything” option will remove all your personal files, apps, drivers and personalized settings, and then perform a clean install for your Windows 10. If you want to remove all the data and start using your computer from scratch, this resetting option should be a good choice.
Similar to the former option, you can also click Change settings to configure some additional settings after selecting “Remove everything”. There are two settings available: Data erasure and Data drives. You can enable or disable them according to your needs.
- Data erasure (On) removes files and clean the drive. This may take hours, but will make hard to recover files.
- Data erasure (Off) just removes your files. This is quicker, but less secure.
- Data drives (On) removes all files from all existing drives on your disk.
- Data drives (Off) removes all files only from the drive where Windows is installed.
If you are running Windows 10 1809 or any earlier versions, you might be unable to access these two settings by clicking Change settings. Instead, you will sequentially get the following interfaces that require you to respectively choose to remove all files from system drive only or all drives and whether to clean the drives.
Here is a table to quickly comparison: Remove files vs Clean the drive.
Option | Speed | Security | Best for |
Just remove my files | Fast | Low | Keeping your PC |
Remove files and clean the drive | Slow | High | Selling or recycling |
About “Remove Files and Clean the Drive”
As mentioned before, “Remove files and clean the drive” is one of the options available when you choose “Remove everything” to reset Windows 10. It is different from the “Just remove my files” option.
If you choose “Just remove my files” option, Windows reset will delete everything saved on the drive/drives by performing a quick format. You cannot access the data normally, but the data still exits on the drive actually and you are able to recover the data with certain data recovery software.
If you choose “Remove files and clean the drive”, Windows reset will not only erase the saved data but also fully clean the drive/drives. This option makes it harder to restore the deleted data and helps avoid leakage of important information. So, it’s more secure to choose this option if you want to sell or donate your computer.
Why do You Need to Remove Files and Clean the Drive
For users who want to reset Windows 10, the “Just remove my files” is enough in most cases. But there are still some situations where you are recommended to completely erase your data and fully clean the drive. You might need to choose “Remove files and clean the drive” in following cases:
- Your Windows runs into certain problems and “Just remove my files” reset feature doesn’t work.
- Your hard drive is running slow and you need a deep wiping to make it runs efficiently again.
- You decide to sell, donate or threw away your computer but worry about personal data being recovered intentionally by others.
- You want to have a fresh start of your computer.
How to Remove Files and Clean the Drive
To remove files and clean the drive, here are two cases:
- Case 1. Reset Windows 10 Just to Erase Data
- Case 2. Reset Windows 10 to Fix System Issues
Case 1. Reset Windows 10 Just to Erase Data
This case is suitable for you, who no longer use this computer and wish to completely wipe the data from its hard drive.
Since completely wiping a hard drive makes data recovery difficult, it is recommended that you back up the drive to an external storage device before proceeding.
To do this, you can use the professional disk management software, MiniTool Partition Wizard, to clone the disk.
- Connect an external hard drive to your computer.
- In the MiniTool Partition Wizard interface, highlight your system drive and click Copy Disk. Then select the external drive as the target and click Next.
- Review the changes, and then click Next.
- Read the NOTE information and click Finish.
- Click Apply.
After backing up your data, you can disconnect the external storage device and go to remove files and clean the drive without any worries. Here’s a simple guide:
- Press Windows + I to open Settings
- Go to Update & Security > Recovery.
- Click Get started button in Reset this PC
- Choose Remove everything.
- Click Change settings, enable both Data erasure and Data drives, and click Next. (For Windows 1809 and earlier versions, choose All drives and Remove files and clean the drive respectively in the following screens.)
- Click Reset button and wait for your Windows 10 to finish resetting.
Case 2: Reset Windows 10 to Fix System Issues
When you are experiencing certain issues that prevent your Windows from running properly, it is a nice choice to reset Windows with cleaning the system drive.
As mentioned in Case 1, you have to back up your data in advance, but this may be not enough in this case. Most system issues are likely to cause data loss on your hard drive. So, you need to restore data before cleaning the drive. You can also use MiniTool Partition Wizard to achieve this goal.
- In its main interface, click Data Recovery in the top toolbar.
- Choose the system partition and click Scan.
- After the scanning finishes, select the data you need and click Save.
- Choose a directory on another drive to save the selected data.
Once it’s done, you can clean the system drive. If you can access the desktop normally, just refer to the steps in Case 1 to perform the action. But if you are unable to log into your account or operate in desktop normally, you might need to reset Windows 10 in Windows Recovery Environment. To do that, you need to:
Step 1: Download Windows 10 Media Creation Tool and create an installation media on a normal computer.
Step 2: Boot from the installation media and click Next. In next page, click Repair your computer to enter Recovery Environment.
Step 3: Choose Troubleshoot > Rest this PC > Remove everything.
Step 4: Choose Only the drive where Windows is installed > Fully clean the drive to clean your system partition.
Step 5: Click Reset button to confirm the operation. Then, you just need to wait until the process is completed.
How to remove files and clean the drive safely? Here’s a complete guide.Click to tweet
Remove Files and Clean the Drive FAQ
Bottom Line
This post has developed a detailed introduction about Windows 10 reset and the “Remove files and clean the drive” reset option.
For any questions about how to back up and recover data with MiniTool Partition Wizard, you can contact our support team via [email protected].
About The Author
Position: Columnist
Vega enjoys helping people with computer problems, including disk management, data recovery, data backup, and more. She is constantly expanding her knowledge in related fields. And she will continue to bring more easy-to-understand professional articles to help people solve various problems on the PC.
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