Thanks to customers who can't avoid spyware and trojans to save their lives, I've gotten pretty quick at backing up, reformatting, and finishing off Windows installs. I've got five core tools that I use to get the job done, and here they are.

1. DriverMax. After going through the install process, the first thing I shoot for is a complete set of functional drivers. Running DriverMax before the format lets you back up all the drivers on a system. It's a great app, and it even loads drivers for non-present devices - meaning my customers don't have to fight with a printer or webcam install CD when they get their computer home.
   
   
2. Migwiz. Oh god, I can hear the screams. Truth be told, I've only had three problems with migwiz, and they were all my fault. Microsoft's file and settings transfer utility works extremely well, and I've never had a problem since changing my method.
   
   Copy the USMT folder from the computer's c:\windows\system32\ and save it to a USB drive. Alternatively, do what the wizard wants you do and create a wizard disk. Run the exe from there both before and after the reformat. It's critical to use the exact same version of the executable to avoid problems.

I've got a bit of a stumper on my hands. Tomorrow, UPS willing, a brand new hard drive (and a couple other choice upgrades) will be arriving on my doorstep. The new drive is a 250GB SATA number--not a monster, but much bigger and much faster than the ancient 80-gigger I've relied on the for far too long, so the new drive is taking the throne as my system drive ASAP. Here's the stumper: Should I be lazy and just transfer the contents of my C: partition over to the new drive, or should I put a daisy-fresh Windows XP install on it and go through the dance of installing all my apps and tweaking all my settings again? With the former I'm up and running again in a matter of hours right where I left off, which is both good (everything is exactly where I left it, including all my settings and shortcuts) and bad (everything is exactly where I left it, including my bloated registry and debris all over my system folders). With the latter I blow the weekend on installing and configuring stuff and doing the inevitable troubleshooting, and the next two months tweaking it until it feels comfortable again. So which is the lesser of two evils?

Or is there a third option I'm not considering? Oh, I could take the easy way out and install Ubuntu or Vista RC2, but I'd still lose days and weeks on tweaking--even more, since both are less familiar to me than good old XP. Sorry, but I'm sticking with XP until now (though be assured I'll be rocking the VMware a lot more with my newfound hard drive space). At any rate, I want to hear about DLS readers' best kung-fu hard drive swapping and/or Windows reinstalling techniques. Pipe up in the comments below!

An unfortunate fact of Windows life is that any Windows install will slowly wear out through use, getting more and more bogged down until finally one must take drastic measures. My own Windows XP install is coming up on a year of use and abuse and has for some time been showing signs this phenomenon, but what I wasn't aware of is that it's possible to create a clean Windows install without the reformatting-and-reinstall method that most people are accustomed to. It turns out that hidden behind blind corners and poorly-worded dialogs in the Windows XP setup is an option to repair and rebuild the OS, but leave applications and settings intact. This isn't the same repair mode that can be used to fix boot problems and other minor issues, and actually getting to it is a marvel of poor design on Microsoft's part. Fortunately, Fred Langa at Information Week has penned a step-by-step tutorial on accessing and using this functionality. In the end, it probably won't make for results quite as good as a complete reformat and reinstall, but it looks like a good option for those who aren't yet ready to take that bigger step.

Though I've had a pretty good run, I know in my heart that I really ought to reinstall Windows. As anyone who has gone though that particular ordeal knows, however, it's much easier said than done, and getting back into your carefully-tweaked workflow after a reinstall can take, quite literally, months, and the day you realize you forgot to backup that one Really Important File is a sad day indeed. So how can you reinstall Windows without the risks? Virtualization. Now, we featured a similar tip a few months back, but Márton Anka has written a handy tutorial that teaches you how to back up your entire system to a VMWare image that you can load, without a reboot, every time you need something from your old Windows install. Now, if only I had the spare hard drive space for this...