Ever slave over a malfunctioning PC for hours trying fix an annoying problem? Of course, such problems seemingly pop up at the most inopportune time. Oftentimes a seemingly simple fix opens up a rabbit hole that makes one forget the initial problem. A strategy to consider is jokingly referred to as “nuke and pave.”

The basic tenet of nuke and pave is to forget about the root cause of the problem and just get the machine back into an operable state. Instead of spending hours and hours figuring out what went wrong, just wipe out the existing configuration (nuke) and reinstall it to a known, good, working state (pave).

The idea is that nuke and pave gets you to an operating state faster than determining the source of the problem and correcting it. Of course, this requires that you have a good configuration from which to restore. Most PCs nowadays come with a restore partition, which allows an easy reversion to factory default.

The factory default, however, is usually not a good place to start. Typically, you will have to install software and drivers for printers, scanners and other devices before the PC will be in a good working state, not to mention customization of the software such as browser settings.

A better approach is to take an “image” of the PC after the initial configuration is complete. This will give you something with which to pave. There are many imaging packages on the market today, ranging in price from free to about $50. Like anything else, you get what you pay for. Acronis True Image and Symantec Ghost are two of the more popular commercial products available. The latter was so popular for a while that “Ghost” was a popular verb in industry vernacular. Alas, “Ghost” as a generic word never quite made it to “Xerox” or even “Google” status, but it’s still a solid product.

Keep in mind that you will need to keep your image current. Hotfixes, software patches and the annoying Windows updates will change the base configuration. After all, the point of paving is to get you to a spot where you don’t need to waste a lot of time getting up to date.

This might seem like a lot of work for only one or even a handful of PCs. Keeping a current image does make more sense as the number of computers to maintain grows larger. The imaging process is simpler if the machines are of the same make and model, or at least similar.

A important thing to remember is that the nuke-and-pave process will, by definition, destroy any data files that are on your PC. Make sure to back those up somewhere, whether in the cloud or on a local backup. The nuke-and-pave process is made simpler if you keep all of your data files in a single location on your computer, such as My Documents.

The nuke-and-pave process is not limited to PCs alone. Its principles can be applied to a variety of devices, such as routers, switches, printers and scanners.

John Agsalud is an IT expert with more than 25 years of information technology experience. Reach him at johnagsalud@yahoo.com.