Key difference: The two terms factory and hard reset are associated with settings. A factory reset relates to the rebooting of the entire system, while hard resets relates to the resetting of any hardware in the system.

Wikipedia states that "a factory reset or master reset is a full restore of an electronic device to its factory settings." Factory reset reboots the entire system. The electronic devices like the PDA (personal digital assistant) and mobile phones are set to factory reset. It deletes all the information stored in the device by reformatting a hard drive. It becomes necessary from time to time for a device to be factory resetted if its not working properly. Caution needs to be taken, as it destroys all data stored in the unit device. Many problems with a hand held electronic device such as freezing can be resolved by performing a factory reset.

Factory resets are generally done to remove the data entirely from a device, the device is to be started again and requires the need of reinstallation of the software. The factory reset makes the device function again in a new form. It cleans the entire system of the device. It is probably done at the time of updating to a new version of the device's software.

Wikipedia states that, "hard reset of a computer system is a hardware operation that re-initializes the core hardware components of the system, thus ending all the current software operations of the system. This is typical, but not always, followed by booting of the system into firmware that re-initializes the rest of the system, and restarts the operating system."

When a device does not function properly, it means the setting in the device needs to be changed, so only that part of the device is reset, or rebooted in the hard reset. It clears all the memory associated with the hardware and updates the hardware with the latest updated version. After the hard reset, the CPU or the processor restarts the application.

Comparison between Factory Reset and Hard Reset:

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