How to Fully Recover an iPad

I haven't had any problems with my iPad yet but recently decided to sell my 16GB Wi-Fi model and upgrade to the 64GB Wi-Fi model. Well the problem I faced was how to wipe my iPad clean and fresh so none of my personal information, songs, data, etc...was still on the device. I was going to do a simple restore but read that it can leave traces of past use. So I decided to fully recover the iPad by setting it to recovery mode and wipe it clean using iTunes. In this guide I will walk you through the steps of setting your iPad to recovery mode and also go over a few other reasons you might want to use recovery mode instead of a simple restore.

So first let me explain what the recovery mode does to your iPad. Basically it is the equivalent of reinstalling the OS on a computer, the iPad basically wipes the OS off the system, and then uses iTunes to reinstall the OS fresh on your system and start over from scratch. This is the safest way to clean your system if you want to resell the iPad (personal opinion).

My reasoning behind wiping my iPad was pretty straight forward, I wanted to clean the system of any and all data and not risk leaving something behind. A few other reasons you might want to do a full recovery is when your iPad just isn't working right. Another common reason is when your iPad refuses to show up in iTunes and nothing you try makes it display in iTunes.

So to put your iPad in recovery mode so you can do a clean wipe of the OS and all the data just follow these steps:

1 - Power on your iPad (but don't connect it to your PC)
2 - Hold down the Sleep/Wake and Home Buttons at the same time
3 - When the red slide bar to power off the iPad displays ignore it, keep holding the buttons down
4 - Wait for the iPad to turn off (keep holding the buttons) the iPad will turn back on.
5 - When the screen shows an apple let go of the Sleep/Wake button
6 - Still holding the Home button plug the iPad into your PC
7 - A symbol should appear, it should look like the USB cable pointing to the iTunes logo
8 - You can let go of the Home Button
9 - You will now see a prompt saying you have to restore the iPad Click OK

Now you just have to let iTunes install the OS and then once it's done if you are ready you can re-register the device, if you are going to sell it then it is ready to be sold and don't do anything, the new buyer can register the device with their PC.

Well I hope this guide helps you with a full recovery of your iPad.