Good news! In this video I verified that I could not recover any data from computer's hard drive after the Microsoft Windows "Reset this PC" was run, using the "Erase everything" and "Clean data: YES" options. I put 400GB+ of my personal data on the drive, secure erased it and then tried recovering the files using 2 different data recovery programs. The only files that were found were the ones created AFTER the secure erase procedure was run. Hopefully this will give people peach of mind when relying on the "Clean data: YES" option to make their old data files unrecoverable. Cheers! -- Jason
Thanks for the awesome video, it was helpful to know because I just sold my computer after doing the full white and was kind of worried if it would be sufficient
Hi - I'm glad the video gave you some reassurance! As long as you used the "Remove everything" and "Clean data: Yes" options, there won't be anything to worry about. Have a great day! - Jason
This is not a new premise, on older HDD with spinning rust secure erase was multiple like 3-7 passes to ensure the positive/negative charge on the platter is neutral and nothing can be recovered. I do not think flash drives have this same issue with data remaining. If you do want to try this out you want to use a good low level scan program. Back in the day I used to use GetDataBack which was a boot dos program but could recover anything if it was possible. Now I would probably use a program like R-Studio and do a deep scan on a slow HDD might take overnight. If you scan takes minutes on an old HDD you should not trust it. recuva works if you need a quick and dirty method but almost every other paid program I used over the years did a much better job at saving files Recuva could not save. They also do a much better job at preserving file structure.
Thanks for your comment. I've also used R-Studio in the past to recover data from failing hard drives. I love how relentless it can be before it times out and gives up on a cluster/sector. You're right, it can take seemly forever but the data that is recovered is usually worth the wait. As for the other programs -- They usually have a "deep scan" mode that does read each and every sector/cluster of the hard drive. Recuva and DiskDrill have that feature and using a deep scan is the only way that all of the deleted data could potentially be recovered. When a user deletes a file, the file's data remains on the drive but the file's entry in the file table is removed. Data recovery programs are able to look at every little bit and piece (sector/cluster) of the drive and then reconstruct a file table that understands where the beginning and end of each deleted file is located and what each file was called. Once that is done, the deleted files can be selected and recovered. The "Reset this PC" program does perform a secure-erase (if selected) where it overwrites all unused portions of the hard drive with garbage data. I'm not sure exactly how many times it overwrites each area, but from my experience, 1 or more times is enough. More times is better, of course, but the data recovery programs can only spit out what the last generation of data was. If all of the empty space has been overwritten with new "garbage" data, only the newly written garbage data can be recovered. Nothing in the hard drive knows how to go beyond the current generation of data that is on the drive. I'm sure that some government agencies and data recovery labs have equipment that might be able to analyze the magnetic fields on the platters to reconstruct older generations of a drive's data, but for us mere mortals, we won't be able to recover anything that has been overwritten 1 or more times. Thanks again and have a great weekend! -- Jason
Hi, thanks for your comment! I have used DBAN, Some utilities on the Hirens Boot DVD PE, the drive manufacturer's utilities, CCleaner, etc. to wipe disks. The "Reset this PC" is useful for a lot of people because it reloads a fresh copy of Windows AND secure erases the unused portions of the drive, if selected. Novice users love how easy they can perform some complex I.T. tasks by using the program. Thanks for subscribing and stay tuned for more videos soon. Cheers! -- Jason :)
Hi! If you use the "Clean Data: Yes" and "Remove Everything" option, you should be good. Some people say that SSD drives can automatically return spare storage locations back to active storage, but I think it would be VERY unlikely that any of your data would be compromised that way. The SSD Drive manufacturers usually have a utility program that can be used to secure erase the drive by removing the drive's current encryption key, but I don't think you can run that command while booted into the Windows operating system on the same drive. Some motherboards also have a secure erase procedure built in, but you would end up without a working copy of Windows on the drive if you used either of these methods. I hope this helps! -- Jason :)
Hi! There is some debate about the "trim" and "overprovisioning" features of SSD drives and the ability of a secure erase program to overwrite 100% of the data on the drive. SSD drives have extra storage capacity that is not visible to the user or operating system. It is usually around 7-10% of the total capacity. This extra storage space is used for bad block management, wear leveling, garbage collection, etc. Because the operating system cannot directly access that part of the drive, people wonder if parts of their data files will become recoverable in the future as the drive makes certain adjustments to what parts of the drive are being used. The "Reset this PC" program overwrites the entire drive (or everything it is *allowed* to access) with random "garbage" data. I'm not sure if it is a 1-pass overwrite or if a multiple-pass overwrite process is run on the drive. When it has finished, the only data that *might* be vulnerable would be data that was located in an area of the drive that was not visible to Windows during the secure erase procedure. In the future, the drive *could* make some of those portions of the drive available for use again, which means that a data recovery program *might* be able to recover something useful if a full deep scan of the drive was performed. A lot of things need to line up perfectly for someone to be able to recover data from a secure-erased SSD drive that way. The information on Microsoft's website does mention any specific vulnerabilities related to use the "Clean data: Yes" to erase SSD drives. There are more powerful secure erase programs out there but what "Reset this PC" uses seems to be effective in wiping out the drive. I believe all of the drive manufacturers have a utility that is specifically designed to eliminate the encryption keys from the SSD drive, which will essentially leave the drive filled with useless encrypted information. Using that utility is a good option but the PC will not be bootable and it will not contain a copy of Windows when the process is complete. Have a great day! -- Jason
Can you do if pc or laptop reset all factory then it show the backups or start new pc in fresh start screen windows 11 How to delete all your backup pc or laptop windows 11?
@@JasonBagnell so those previous backup is in my Microsoft account? If you upgrade new pc or laptop? If I sell laptop, so they can't backup my backup right?
@@BimBimOppa If you are selling the PC, you should use the “Remove everything” and the “Clean data: Yes” options. Make sure that you DO NOT enter your Microsoft account Email address and password during the Windows Setup process at the end. Some people just turn the PC off at that point and give it to the new owner. You can also enter No@thankyou.com and a random password and the Windows Setup program will usually skip the Microsoft account requirement.
If you ran the "Reset this PC" program using the "Remove everything" and "Clean Data: yes" options, none of the previous data files will be present on the drive an no one will be able to recover them using a data recovery utility. The PC will be running the same version of Windows that it was running before. From there you can install anything you want to, including a different version of Windows. I hope this helps -- Jason
I only use Local accounts as well. Microsoft is becoming too involved in our lives these days. An upcoming release of Windows 11 is going to take a screenshot every 30 seconds and the screenshots will be stored on the computer for "Recall" at a later time. That is absolutely unacceptable in my book and I will always keep that feature disabled on every computer I come across. For more information you can watch this other creator's video: th-cam.com/video/00q7yVhpkVo/w-d-xo.htmlsi=dpwdlUH7Kk6ik_p- Have a great day! -- Jason
I typically don't binge watch youtube videos (especially at work sometimes maybeeee ;o ) i bought first pc 10 years ago when i was 14. it was a load of dog crap w the almighty nvidia gtx960 (i now... 960 are exclusive chads only. then one day boom i bend chip on my prestigous intel i5-6400 couldnt even overclock that chip too btw.. This events occured a lil over half a year ago now. i wish i was born like 5 years earlier and wasn't the oldest child or at least had someone to introdocue this to me then now i pay 80k to american college until i realize like whyyyy meeeen whyyyyyyyyyyyyyy but it not as bad i got scholarships in shit plus grants still tho fuci blame obama
Good news! In this video I verified that I could not recover any data from computer's hard drive after the Microsoft Windows "Reset this PC" was run, using the "Erase everything" and "Clean data: YES" options. I put 400GB+ of my personal data on the drive, secure erased it and then tried recovering the files using 2 different data recovery programs. The only files that were found were the ones created AFTER the secure erase procedure was run. Hopefully this will give people peach of mind when relying on the "Clean data: YES" option to make their old data files unrecoverable. Cheers! -- Jason
My comment from the first video about the secure erase reeinstall of Windows is herewith answered.thank you Jason
Thanks for the awesome video, it was helpful to know because I just sold my computer after doing the full white and was kind of worried if it would be sufficient
Hi - I'm glad the video gave you some reassurance! As long as you used the "Remove everything" and "Clean data: Yes" options, there won't be anything to worry about. Have a great day! - Jason
Thank you very much for the work!
My pleasure -- I'm glad you found the video helpful! -- Jason
This is not a new premise, on older HDD with spinning rust secure erase was multiple like 3-7 passes to ensure the positive/negative charge on the platter is neutral and nothing can be recovered. I do not think flash drives have this same issue with data remaining.
If you do want to try this out you want to use a good low level scan program. Back in the day I used to use GetDataBack which was a boot dos program but could recover anything if it was possible. Now I would probably use a program like R-Studio and do a deep scan on a slow HDD might take overnight. If you scan takes minutes on an old HDD you should not trust it.
recuva works if you need a quick and dirty method but almost every other paid program I used over the years did a much better job at saving files Recuva could not save. They also do a much better job at preserving file structure.
Thanks for your comment. I've also used R-Studio in the past to recover data from failing hard drives. I love how relentless it can be before it times out and gives up on a cluster/sector. You're right, it can take seemly forever but the data that is recovered is usually worth the wait.
As for the other programs -- They usually have a "deep scan" mode that does read each and every sector/cluster of the hard drive. Recuva and DiskDrill have that feature and using a deep scan is the only way that all of the deleted data could potentially be recovered. When a user deletes a file, the file's data remains on the drive but the file's entry in the file table is removed. Data recovery programs are able to look at every little bit and piece (sector/cluster) of the drive and then reconstruct a file table that understands where the beginning and end of each deleted file is located and what each file was called. Once that is done, the deleted files can be selected and recovered.
The "Reset this PC" program does perform a secure-erase (if selected) where it overwrites all unused portions of the hard drive with garbage data. I'm not sure exactly how many times it overwrites each area, but from my experience, 1 or more times is enough. More times is better, of course, but the data recovery programs can only spit out what the last generation of data was. If all of the empty space has been overwritten with new "garbage" data, only the newly written garbage data can be recovered. Nothing in the hard drive knows how to go beyond the current generation of data that is on the drive. I'm sure that some government agencies and data recovery labs have equipment that might be able to analyze the magnetic fields on the platters to reconstruct older generations of a drive's data, but for us mere mortals, we won't be able to recover anything that has been overwritten 1 or more times.
Thanks again and have a great weekend! -- Jason
Very helpful, thank you for the work and confirming that the Reset functionality is indeed secure.
You're welcome! I'm glad you found the video helpful. Have a great day -- Jason
Thanks for sharing.
Thank you
You're welcome! I'm always glad to help. Cheers -- Jason
Thanks for the video. Well done! Thumbs & subscribed. What other tools have you used to wipe computer drives?
Hi, thanks for your comment! I have used DBAN, Some utilities on the Hirens Boot DVD PE, the drive manufacturer's utilities, CCleaner, etc. to wipe disks. The "Reset this PC" is useful for a lot of people because it reloads a fresh copy of Windows AND secure erases the unused portions of the drive, if selected. Novice users love how easy they can perform some complex I.T. tasks by using the program. Thanks for subscribing and stay tuned for more videos soon. Cheers! -- Jason :)
Would it be possible to recover data on an SSD?
Hi! If you use the "Clean Data: Yes" and "Remove Everything" option, you should be good. Some people say that SSD drives can automatically return spare storage locations back to active storage, but I think it would be VERY unlikely that any of your data would be compromised that way. The SSD Drive manufacturers usually have a utility program that can be used to secure erase the drive by removing the drive's current encryption key, but I don't think you can run that command while booted into the Windows operating system on the same drive. Some motherboards also have a secure erase procedure built in, but you would end up without a working copy of Windows on the drive if you used either of these methods. I hope this helps! -- Jason :)
If the OS disc is SSD the "Reset this PC" process will adequately keep your data safe when selling?
Hi! There is some debate about the "trim" and "overprovisioning" features of SSD drives and the ability of a secure erase program to overwrite 100% of the data on the drive. SSD drives have extra storage capacity that is not visible to the user or operating system. It is usually around 7-10% of the total capacity. This extra storage space is used for bad block management, wear leveling, garbage collection, etc. Because the operating system cannot directly access that part of the drive, people wonder if parts of their data files will become recoverable in the future as the drive makes certain adjustments to what parts of the drive are being used.
The "Reset this PC" program overwrites the entire drive (or everything it is *allowed* to access) with random "garbage" data. I'm not sure if it is a 1-pass overwrite or if a multiple-pass overwrite process is run on the drive. When it has finished, the only data that *might* be vulnerable would be data that was located in an area of the drive that was not visible to Windows during the secure erase procedure. In the future, the drive *could* make some of those portions of the drive available for use again, which means that a data recovery program *might* be able to recover something useful if a full deep scan of the drive was performed.
A lot of things need to line up perfectly for someone to be able to recover data from a secure-erased SSD drive that way. The information on Microsoft's website does mention any specific vulnerabilities related to use the "Clean data: Yes" to erase SSD drives. There are more powerful secure erase programs out there but what "Reset this PC" uses seems to be effective in wiping out the drive. I believe all of the drive manufacturers have a utility that is specifically designed to eliminate the encryption keys from the SSD drive, which will essentially leave the drive filled with useless encrypted information. Using that utility is a good option but the PC will not be bootable and it will not contain a copy of Windows when the process is complete. Have a great day! -- Jason
Can you do if pc or laptop reset all factory then it show the backups or start new pc in fresh start screen windows 11
How to delete all your backup pc or laptop windows 11?
Hi! Watch my main video on this topic here: th-cam.com/video/zW2v3M_xFVY/w-d-xo.html It should have the answers you are searching for. Thanks! - Jason
@@JasonBagnell so those previous backup is in my Microsoft account? If you upgrade new pc or laptop?
If I sell laptop, so they can't backup my backup right?
@@BimBimOppa If you are selling the PC, you should use the “Remove everything” and the “Clean data: Yes” options. Make sure that you DO NOT enter your Microsoft account Email address and password during the Windows Setup process at the end. Some people just turn the PC off at that point and give it to the new owner. You can also enter No@thankyou.com and a random password and the Windows Setup program will usually skip the Microsoft account requirement.
@@JasonBagnell ok thank you jason
Can I install after I reset a new installation of Windows 10 ?
I would to install from from flash drive that I store it
Thank you so helpful
If you ran the "Reset this PC" program using the "Remove everything" and "Clean Data: yes" options, none of the previous data files will be present on the drive an no one will be able to recover them using a data recovery utility. The PC will be running the same version of Windows that it was running before. From there you can install anything you want to, including a different version of Windows. I hope this helps -- Jason
I don't trust nor do I like Microsoft. I have a local account with Windows 10 and 11.
I only use Local accounts as well. Microsoft is becoming too involved in our lives these days. An upcoming release of Windows 11 is going to take a screenshot every 30 seconds and the screenshots will be stored on the computer for "Recall" at a later time. That is absolutely unacceptable in my book and I will always keep that feature disabled on every computer I come across. For more information you can watch this other creator's video: th-cam.com/video/00q7yVhpkVo/w-d-xo.htmlsi=dpwdlUH7Kk6ik_p- Have a great day! -- Jason
@@JasonBagnell My sentiments exactly. Smh
I typically don't binge watch youtube videos (especially at work sometimes maybeeee ;o ) i bought first pc 10 years ago when i was 14. it was a load of dog crap w the almighty nvidia gtx960 (i now... 960 are exclusive chads only. then one day boom i bend chip on my prestigous intel i5-6400 couldnt even overclock that chip too btw.. This events occured a lil over half a year ago now. i wish i was born like 5 years earlier and wasn't the oldest child or at least had someone to introdocue this to me then now i pay 80k to american college until i realize like whyyyy meeeen whyyyyyyyyyyyyyy but it not as bad i got scholarships in shit plus grants still tho fuci blame obama