The hard reset is when you restart the phone and refresh the memory in which the apps run. ... Like the soft reset, it does not delete data, so it is safe to do without backing up the phone.

Does hard reset remove all data?

Factory Reset does NOT delete all data

When you factory reset your Android phone, even though your phone system becomes factory new, but some of the old Personal information is not deleted. This information is actually “marked as deleted” and hidden so you can't see it at a glance.

Does a hard reset delete photos?

When you restore to factory defaults, this information is not deleted; instead it's used to reinstall all necessary software for your device. The only data removed during a factory reset is data you add: apps, contacts, stored messages and multimedia files like photos.