how to factory reset msi laptop

Is your MSI laptop feeling sluggish, plagued by persistent errors, or are you preparing to pass it on to someone else? A factory reset can be the fresh start your machine needs. This process restores the laptop to its original out-of-the-box state, wiping all your personal files, applications, and settings. It’s a powerful solution that can resolve many common computer woes.

Before You Reset: Safeguard Your Files

The most crucial step happens before you even begin the reset. A factory reset will erase everything on your primary drive (usually the C: drive). You must back up all your important documents, photos, videos, and any other files you wish to keep. Copy them to an external hard drive, a USB flash drive, or a cloud storage service. Once you’re confident your data is safe, you can proceed.

How to Perform the Factory Reset

MSI laptops include a built-in recovery tool that makes this process straightforward. First, ensure your laptop is plugged into a power source to prevent any interruptions. Navigate to Settings > Update & Security > Recovery. You will see a “Reset this PC” option at the top. Click “Get started.”

You will then be presented with two choices. Selecting “Remove everything” will do a complete wipe, which is best for a full restoration or before selling the laptop. The “Cloud Download” or “Local Reinstall” options both work, but a local reinstall is often faster. The system will guide you through the final confirmation steps, and then the reset will begin. Your laptop will restart several times during this process.

Using the MSI Recovery Partition

If Windows is not starting correctly, you can still access the recovery environment. Turn off your laptop. Turn it back on and immediately press the F3 key repeatedly until you see the “Please wait” screen. This will boot the laptop directly into the MSI recovery manager. From here, you can select “Troubleshoot,” then “Reset this PC,” and follow the same on-screen instructions to remove all files and reinstall Windows.

Whichever method you use, the process will take some time. Once finished, your MSI laptop will be just like it was when you first took it out of the box, ready for a clean setup or a new owner.