Help Format phone storage vs. Clear storage

[rossmathis]

So if I do a Factory Reset on the phone it still has some of the old photos/videos I took, which leads me to believe it doesn't fully clear the device of everything, just the settings that I changed are returned to their factory defaults (duh!).

I was curious if I do the Clear Storage option, which means turning off the device and holding one of the volume toggles while holding the power button - would that mean that the entire Android OS would be removed, or does it mean it does a format of the phones entire partition and re-installs Android (similar to a reformat/recovery partition on a computer)? In which case I would need to reactivate the phone doing the simple *228.

 

[CatsTide]

i believe a factory reset will reset the os but not clear out any of the stored memory. i know it won't clear your sd card and may not clear the internal memory but it will reset the os.

 

[rossmathis]

i believe a factory reset will reset the os but not clear out any of the stored memory. i know it won't clear your sd card and may not clear the internal memory but it will reset the os.

Yeah I have done the Factory Reset at least twice since having the phone, just because of my OCD. But I was curious if clearing the storage like mentioned above would wipe everything clear, but somehow keep the OS intact. I just want to do a 'super' format that doesn't fudge up the phone.

 

[djkilgus]

According to... http://androidforums.com/tips-tricks-incredible/72902-how-do-complete-factory-reset-incredible.html, the locally stored data (not SD card) within the /emmc directory is not erased when you do a factory reset.

 

[Jermflux]

choice the har ddrive option when you use your usb from the computer. under windows, right click on the internal storage and format it. right click on the sd card, format it. now turn the phone off. hold the volume down button and turn the phone on. EVERYTHING other than the factory ROM will be erased. After the reinstall you will be starting bran new. Matter of fact, any third party stuff that came with your phone such as the preloaded music will be gone too. your contact favorites will show up after starting gmail.

 

[Eric G]

What about going to Settings, SD card & phone storage, then Format Phone Storage? What does that do?