For about a week I have been having PC issues, Windows 7 either not wanting to start or freezing up, browser windows fading to white.. scans in Avast and Microsoft Security essentials didn't show anything. I ran Malwarebytes and had about 26 some odd trojans and nasty stuff in some folders of a freeware winavi converter and something called fungames (a search for this site doesn't ring any bells) so I removed all this and my PC became a frustratingly difficult issue of running Last Known Good Configuration everytime I turned it on and would not restore or use the backup image I had on another drive. I knew I was going to have to reformat so I already keep backups of game files, missions, skins, Stick profiles etc, and most of my games are in Steam on another drive. Last night I reinstalled Windows fully planning on reformatting but somehow I did it without re-formatting and didn't really lose anything so I have spent a few hours re-installing drivers and re-scanning everything and the PC is running like new, phew. I gotta say this is better than the old days with XP, and Malwarebytes is the shiz, I highly reccomend it even just the free trial.

I went through a similar deal not long ago. Did an in place reinstall and everything stayed the same. After that, I bought a copy of Acronis for 30 bucks. I've had the Win 7 image fail me twice now and I think the built in Win 7 image maker is based on Acronis since Acronis gives you the option of converting a Microsoft built image to the Acronis version.

Acronis gives you the option of installing a boot-loader that asks you at boot if you want to restore from the Acronis image so it's a pretty cool deal. Also lets you verify the image you created is good. Microsoft's version just tells you it created an image successfully but it might not be any good without being to able to verify it.