Factory Reset - What exactly happens?

[JHAT]

Hey guys, new Optimus V owner here. Well not yet really- it's coming in tomorrow. Anyways, I've been reading up a lot on ROMs and rooting, what exactly happens when you factory reset a rooted phone outside of recovery mode? I mean I know doing this is pretty much a guaranteed brick, but I see a lot of warning messages but no explanations. I feel like a lot of people accidentally/intentionally do the factory reset whilst rooted on multiple forums and pay the price with an expensive paperweight.

So what exactly causes the phone to brick?

 

[thekraven]

I think when you do the factory reset via the settings menu, it reboots and looks for the stock recovery, and for the most part everyone has a custom recovery installed. So it hangs at those commands. Mmarz has a post to wipe those commands and allow to get past that. So it's not a permanent brick and you can fix it.

 

[rockneo]

Very glad you read up on this before you even got the phone kudos to you

Sent from my Optimus V

 

[arhtard]

i always wondered this too

 

[zedorda]

When u use the reset within Android with out a matching recovery. Android and the Recovery have a miscommunication which ends up deleting more elements than was intended. If the elements can be restored the phone can be fixed which does require a computer in most cases.