MaximumPC 2002 09

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.