hard reset

noun, verb — 4 senses

hard reset

nounalso spelled hard-reset
1

Computer hardware, Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences The reinitialization of the core hardware components of a computer system, ending any software processes and restarting the operating system.

2

A factory reset.

Derived terms
hard-reset

hard-reset

verb
1

Computer hardware, Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences Uncommon To perform a forceful restart or reinitialization of a device, system, or process, typically by cutting power, or using a dedicated button.

  • Do not hard reset the computer while you're using a disk caching program!1993, Ron Dippold, Windows Secrets, page 155:
  • I have a Sony Clie S-360 with a broken power button (I managed to drop it, of course :-) So far, I didn't miss any functionality because I used a hack to remap the To Do button into a power button, but now I need to hard reset the unit and I'm not quite sure how to do it.2002 July 26, Dan, “Hard reset without using the power button - Is it possible?”, in alt.comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (Usenet):
2 more examples
  • Another way of hard-resetting the microcontroller within in a sketch is to connect a jumper from any digital pin to the Uno's RES pin, and set the digital pin HIGH in OUTPUT mode.2019, David Dubins, Electronics and Microprocessing for Research, 2nd Edition, You Can Make It, page 390:
  • "Close the system, Ghaazi, now!" Suri says. Ghaazi scrambles and pushes me out of the way, hard resetting the system.2021, Olivia Chadha, Rise of the Red Hand, Volume 1, page 179:
2

Computer hardware, Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences Uncommon To factory reset a device.

  • As soon as I pulled back onto the road I realized my one grave mistake: hard resetting the Zumo had erased everything that was stored in the system; gone was my tiny blue track that had followed me for months; gone were my trip statistics - all gone.2025, Ben Myburgh, The $500 Bet and How I Met My Father:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — authors: page histories for hard reset and hard-reset.