# Factory reset



## jargon113 (Jun 27, 2012)

Quick question,

When factory resetting does the phone actually delete personal files or just mark as deleted?

For example HD needs 0'd out before being sold..

This stems from a conversation my brother an I were having about the iphone doesn't remove personal data, just marks as delete. Was wondering if android was the same. You think that the NAND memory would just be quickly wiped?


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## Gasai Yuno (Jul 25, 2011)

If you do it via recovery, it reformats the /data partition.

Naturally, mkfs.ext2 won't really wipe everything out, it just cleans the main filesystem's control structures.


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