Give Windows a
When you can’t fi x it. When you can’t repair it. When you can’t even
boot, it’s time to reinstall your OS—the right way. We’ll show you how
BY GORDON MAH UNG
24 |MAMAMAXIMXIMXIMXIMUUUUMMPPPCC| FEB 09 | http://www.maximumpc.com
Clean start. OS reset. Nuke and pave. Whatever you call
it, no matter how good a personal system administrator
you are, there’s a time to take your OS install out behind
the shed and put two in its head.
When would you need to take such extreme mea-
sures? If the networking stack is splayed out on the fl oor
and no amount of patching, registry editing, or Winsock
repair tools can fi x it. If you can’t get hibernate or stand-
by to work anymore. Or if you’ve had a horrible mal-
ware or rootkit breakout. Sure, you may have reclaimed
control of your PC aft er an epic fi ve-day battle with the
beast, but can you really trust your OS anymore? You
don’t want to reenact the fi nal sequence from The Thing ,
you and your PC eyeing one another wondering if the
other is not what he seems to be.
A clean start is the only way to relieve your para-
noia. It can also save you countless hours of trouble-
shooting and tweaking a misbehaving machine. Fol-
low along as we instruct you on the proper way to do
a clean install—whether you’re using XP or Vista—that
will have your OS acting like the young pup it once was.
Plus, we’ll show you how to create a pristine image of
your OS that’ll save your bacon the next time your rig
melts down.