I have an ASUS laptop with Windows 10 that I want to factory reset. I used it for many years and did some torrenting with it in the past, so I wouldn't be surprised if something went wrong when it comes to security. The steps I would follow are these: https://www.asus.com/en/support/FAQ/1013065/
I would rather factory reset than format cause it would be harder to find the right drivers again if I formatted, and it's a big deal with laptops.
However, I wonder, is factory reset from a recovery partition safe enough to clean up the laptop if it got infected? Or could malware have overwritten the recovery partition and/or the UEFI (or other firmware)? I have secure boot disabled cause I needed to start Linux from Live USB many times and it interfered.
WriteFile()
for even some administrator level code to write there or to the UEFI. Also could a TPM be overwritten as well, or would it detect changes in the UEFI if I re-enabled secure boot and reset the OS?