I’m trying to restore a beaglebone black to factory defaults, but I’m not sure a) where those default files can be found and b)how to replace the files on my beaglebone with the default files. I’m not a computer guy at all, so no detail is too basic 
The best way is to create a ‘flasher’ image on an SD card and boot with that flasher image.
The instructions for windows are to :
[ol]Download this file [url]https://debian.beagleboard.org/images/bone-debian-8.4-lxqt-4gb-armhf-2016-05-13-4gb.img.xz[/url]
Download and install [url]https://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/[/url]
Insert an SD card (4Gb or larger)
Run win32 image writer and write the image to the SD card
Put the SD card in the BBB and reboot while holding down S2 (aka SD_BOOT) button
Connect to the BBB via the serial port or via telnet to 192.168.7.2
Use a text editor to edit /boot/uEnv.txt (for example: $ sudo nano /boot/uEnv.txt)
Delete the ‘#’ from in front of the line that says ‘cmdline=init=/opt/scripts/tools/eMMC/init-eMMC-flasher-v3.sh’
Save the file
Hold the S2 button again and press reset
Wait 20-45 minutes until the lights stop blinking like an old Mustang turn signal (cycling sequentially)
When the lights go out, remove the SD and reboot
Your BBB has now been loaded with the latest software and all default settings
Afterward, you should not reuse the sd card unless you either re-comment the line in uEnv.txt, or re-format it, or just save it for next time you want to do a reset, but every time you boot from it, it is going to erase your BBB and reset it to factory new[/ol]
Edit: cyberh0me is right, you can find the instructions on various pages on the BBB site - but the above is the full set of steps, all in one place.
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