Hard Reset your Samsung Galaxy S2

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Kris Carlon 35
Kris Carlon
  • Forum posts: 1,110

Aug 12, 2013, 7:01:25 PM via Website

Performing a Hard Reset on your device is simple as pie. The difference between a Factory Reset and a Hard Reset is:

Factory Reset
The 'lighter' of the two reset options. It can be done either in settings or via recovery menu. It wipes all user data and firmware settings but leaves the contents of your internal SD Card intact.

Hard Reset
Restores a smartphone to its basic factory settings, which erases all applications that were installed by the user as well as all user data. Hard Reset wipes everything including the contents of your internal SD Card. Whatever firmware you last flashed will be the firmware you get back, but everything else will be wiped.

Have you already tried to Factory Reset first? If not, the tutorial is here. If this hasn't solved the problem, let's proceed with the Hard Reset for the Samsung Galaxy S2.

  • Turn your phone off.
  • With the phone off, press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key, then press and hold the Power key. You'll see the Android recovery screen.
  • Scroll to Wipe Data/Factory Reset using the Volume Up or Down keys. Select with the power key.
  • Scroll down to Yes, Delete User Data and select it.
  • Back on the first screen, scroll down to Wipe Cache Partition and select it.
  • Your factory reset is now complete.
  • Go to Reboot System Now to restart the phone.
Let us know if you have any questions or problems.

— modified on Aug 12, 2013, 7:01:36 PM

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811 Madman (Madman811)

1
Blake Shields
  • Forum posts: 1

Aug 21, 2013, 8:02:47 AM via Website

I have tried both options you list here and neither are working for me. So i have quite the dilemma! My friend has a galaxy S2 that she got from a friend for ATT. She was using it on T-Mobile for awhile but then somehow there were too many pattern attempts and now the phone is asking for the gmail associated with the google account. But she doesnt remember setting one up and i feel like it was probably her friends gmail that is still associated with it! Of course the friend doesnt remember what it was either.... We called samsung and they said that i needed to contact ATT so that they could verify that we didnt steal the device. But as I said before she was using it on t-mobile so that wont work either. Im not sure what else to do. I have already tried to hold down the volume buttons and power button to do a hard reboot but for some reason that doesnt work. Anybody have this issue? We cant get a new phone because she already used her upgrade on another phone but she hates it. The model # of this phone is SGH- I777. Is there a way to do the wipe from a computer?

Loie Favre 33
Loie Favre
  • Forum posts: 877

Aug 21, 2013, 11:36:41 AM via Website

Hi Blake,

That is really odd that the normal sequence of buttons isn't working.

To be clear, you need to first press the Volume Up key and the Home key at the same time and THEN press the Power key. Then hold down all three until phone turns on. Here is a pretty good video that will slowly explain all the steps.

That button combination should work. So give this a try first and then let us know!

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Rok Servis Motorjev Marincspeedshop

2
yaham jayasuriya
  • Forum posts: 9

Aug 26, 2013, 5:24:06 PM via Website

isn't this risky?

Kris Carlon 35
Kris Carlon
  • Forum posts: 1,110

Sep 2, 2013, 6:24:14 PM via Website

Hi Yaham, no more risky than anything else you do with your phone. The options are built into the phone to give you the freedom to reset your device to speed it up, get rid of malware, clear up space etc. The only risk is that you can wipe data you didn't intend to, by not backing up before doing the hard reset. That's why we encourage everyone to do a simple turn off/remove battery first, then factory reset through the settings menu, and then hard reset last, as most problems can be fixed by the earlier two options.

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