How to Recover Photos After Factory Reset Laptop/PC?

Laptop/PC – If your Windows Laptop/PC hangs, freezes, or gets stuck, you should try refreshing it to bring it back to its normal state. However, if refreshing fails to bring it to normal, you should try resetting your PC to the factory settings. Resetting Windows devices allow you to boost your device performance and troubleshoot many Windows OS errors.

Factory resetting the Windows Laptop or PC brings them to the original manufacturer settings. When you factory reset your device, it deletes all the files/folders and removes all settings on it. Windows OS provide you with an option to choose whether you want to keep the data on your device or ‘Remove everything’ stored on it. When you select ‘Remove everything’, it automatically deletes everything, including your memorable photos from your computer.

Don’t worry; we will help you to know how to recover photos after factory reset laptop/PC. Just go with the methods mentioned in this article to get your deleted pictures back.

Quick Methods to Recover Photos After Factory Reset Laptop or PC

There are multiple ways by which you can recover permanently deleted photos on Windows. You can use earlier created backup or any professional data recovery software to restore your deleted pictures. Let’s discuss each of these methods in detail:

Method 01: Recover Deleted Photos Using Windows Backup

One of the simplest ways to recover photos after factory resetting the Windows laptop or PC is by using the backup. You can use any external storage device or cloud storage services, such as Google Photos, One Drive, etc. to create backup of your important pictures. Windows in-built Backup and Restore option allows you to create backup of your files easily.

Now, check the following steps to know how to recover deleted photos on Windows 10 devices using Backup and Restore:

• Press Windows + I Keys to open the Settings window, and click Update and Security.
• Now, click Backup from the left navigation pane and then click on Go to Backup and Restore (Windows 7).
• Click Restore my files followed by clicking the Browse for files or Browse for folders option.
• Select all the photos that you need to restore and tap Next.
• After that, select the storage location where you want to save the selected pictures, then click Restore.

Method 02: Use Photo Recovery Tool to Recover Photos after Factory Reset Laptop

If you haven’t created any backup earlier, you can use a professional photo recovery software to recover permanently deleted photos after a factory reset. Among several such recovery tools, we’d like to recommend that the Stellar Photo Recovery tool is a 100% safe and secure image recovery tool that allows you to restore deleted pictures in a few simple clicks. The software is fully compatible with almost all Windows OS, including Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8.1, 8, and other older versions.

Key Features of Stellar Photo Recovery Tool 

Check the following amazing features of the Stellar Photo Recovery tool that make it best for your deleted photo recovery:

• Recover photos deleted due to accidental deletion, factory resetting, formatting, system crash, virus attack and lost partition.
• Supports recovery of images from various devices, including your computer, cell phones, digital cameras, external or internal storage drives, etc.
• Not only recovers your deleted photos, but you can also use this tool to recover your deleted RAW image videos of multiple formats.
• Preview the lost or deleted photos, videos, and audio files of several formats, including JPEG, RAW, PNG, MP4, MOV, MP3, etc. before saving them on your device.
• The photo recovery software is available in different versions with each having its own features. You can check their features and select the best one accordingly.

Check the step-by-step instructions to know how to recover deleted photos after factory reset laptop/PC using the Stellar Photo Recovery tool:

• Install Stellar Photo Recovery software on Windows PC that you have factory reset.
• Launch the software and from the Select Location to Scan window, select the drive, volume, or storage location that you need to scan and click Scan.

• Once the scanning process is completed, preview the recoverable photos and select the files you need to recover.
• Select the photos, videos, and audio files that you need to recover and click the Recover button to save them at the desired location.

How do I Factory Reset Windows PC without Losing Data?

As we know factory resetting your PC is required in several cases, such as when it displays strange errors or performs slow. Before you perform any action to factory reset your device, try to take a backup of all your important data as soon as possible, especially the C drive data. Once you copy your data, you will be able to reset your device.

There are several ways by which you can reset your Windows device to an earlier state. Here’s how to reset Windows Laptop/PC easily:

• Press Windows + I keys to open “Settings”, then click Update & Security > Recovery > Reset this PC > Get Started.
• Now, you need to select one among the “Keep my files” or “Remove everything” options depending on whether you want to keep your files or delete them.
• When you select “Remove Everything”, click “only the drive where Windows is installed” or “All drives” from the next window that appears.
• After that, tap the “Just remove my files” or “Remove files and clean the drive” option as per your requirement.
• At last, click the “Reset” button from the Ready to Reset this PC window.

Once done with the above steps, your system will take some time to reset your device. After that, you can use that backup to restore your backup if you need them.

Tips to Prevent Data Loss Issues on Windows Devices

Go through the following preventive measures to avoid data loss issues on your Windows Laptop/PC:

• Once you find data is deleted from your device, stop using it. Deleted data can be recovered only if the space it was earlier occupying was not overlapped by new files.
• Always take backup of your important files on any external storage device or by using Windows’ in-built backup utility tool such as Backup and Restore.
• Keep your device’s operating system and its software programs up-to-date. Also, make sure the anti-virus software installed in your system is updated.

Wrapping Up

Factory resetting the Windows laptop or PC is helpful in several ways, but leads to data loss issues as this brings your device back to its original state. Once perform factory reset of your system, it became new and all its files/folders including your memorable photos get deleted. If you have created any backup before such data loss, you can use it to recover those data files. However, if no backup was created, you can use photo recovery tools such as Stellar Photo Recovery to recover permanently deleted photos. This all-in-one software is a reliable solution to recover your photos deleted due to any reason in a few simple clicks.