For context, I am not in IT support directly but in engineering where I manage a fleet of Ubuntu devices. So I became the de facto tech support for all known friends and family.

I sold an old laptop to a friend's friend. Cloned the drive and then did a fresh windows install. Office setup etc. Very standard. Friend is happy and a few months go by no worries.

Friend comes back and asks me to take a look. The device is stuck in a boot loop. Ask what happened and I am told: "My emails were too full so I did a factory reset".

Could not escape the boot loop so I redid a windows install and no issues since.

I thought it was worth sharing due to how I am still in shock at the train of thought that went:
Email spam --> Factory reset --> Needs fresh OS install