Definition & Meaning of "nuke and pave"in English

What does "to nuke and pave" mean in tech slang?

This term originated within IT support and system administration communities, likely in the 1990s, as a dramatic way to describe a last-resort fix. Today, it is used to mean completely wiping a computer's hard drive and reinstalling the operating system from scratch to resolve persistent software issues, viruses, or corruption. Technicians typically resort to nuking and paving when troubleshooting fails, as it guarantees a clean slate but erases all user data. The structure combines "nuke" (to destroy completely) with "pave" (to lay down a fresh surface), forming a rhyming verb phrase that vividly contrasts total destruction with new construction.