How to Reformat a Laptop

This FREE tutorial teaches you how to reformat your Windows or Mac laptop and reinstall the operating system as new. If you’re going to sell or give away your computer, reformatting your laptop ensures that your data is erased and the new owner can set it up exactly as they want to. You can also reformat your laptop if you’re having trouble with performance, have viruses or malware, or just want a fresh start.

On a Windows laptop, go to Settings, select Update & Security, and open the Recovery menu. Find “Reset this PC” and select “Get Started” to start reformatting. Choose the “Remove Everything” option to clean all the data off of your computer.

On a Windows laptop, go to Settings, select Update & Security, and open the Recovery menu. Find “Reset this PC” and select “Get Started” to start reformatting. Choose the “Remove Everything” option to clean all the data off of your computer.Method1

On Windows

1. 1Connect your laptop to a power source. Since reformatting your laptop can take a while, you’ll need to make sure the battery doesn’t die during the process.
   • Reformatting your PC laptop will erase all of your files. Make sure you’re only doing this if you’ve either backed up your data or are okay with your files being deleted.
2. 2Open your Windows Settings. You can do this by clicking the Windows Start menu and selecting the Settings gear icon. You can also press Windows key + i to open your settings.https://87e76046a24be2dcde6cf3d553552b38.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-40/html/container.html
3. 3Click Update & security. It’s the icon of two curved arrows in the bottom row.
4. 4Click the Recovery tab in the left panel. Your recovery options will expand in the right panel.
5. 5Click the Get started button. It’s under “Reset This PC” at the top of the right panel.
6. 6click Remove everything. It’s the second option. This is the option that will clean all of the data from your hard drive.
7. 7Click Change settings. This is where you can tell Windows to “clean the drive,” which is just another way to say “reformatting.”
8. 8Toggle the “Data erasure” switch to On . As long as this switch is enabled, you’ll be reformatting the drive.
9. 9Click the Confirm button. It’s at the bottom of the window.https://87e76046a24be2dcde6cf3d553552b38.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-40/html/container.html
10. 10Follow the on-screen instructions to reformat your PC. The remaining steps will ask you to confirm that you want to reset the PC, which you should only do if you are okay with losing your data. Once your PC is finished reformatting, it will reboot and ask you to set up Windows as new.

Method2

On macOS

1. 1Connect your laptop to a power source. Since reformatting your laptop can take a while, you’ll need to make sure the battery doesn’t die during the process.
   • Reformatting your Macbook will erase all of your files. Make sure you’re only doing this if you’ve either backed up your data or are okay with your files being deleted.
2. 2Deauthorize your Mac in iTunes (macOS Mojave and earlier only). If you’re using macOS Catalina or later, you can skip this step. If you’re running macOS Mojave (10.14.6) or earlier, here’s what you’ll need to do before you continue:
   • Open ITunes.^[1]
   • Click the Account menu and select Authorizations.
   • Click Deauthorize This Computer and confirm your Apple ID and password.