Well since it already crashed now is a good time to do a factory reset including erasing
Sd card. Next configure your internet,language,time zone etc. Then just go to update
there will be a system update when that is compled restart the tool and do the rest of
the updates. I think that is pretty much it. Good luck.

Hopefully you are still under your update period which brings a very good question.
How in the in the world can we do this after our update period expires. I don't see a
way to back up this unit in case of a crash like yours or if the hard drive takes a dive. I
am about to run out of warranty and update my self.

  Well,   you can connect the updated/working  Maxi to a pc via its mini usb port with the supplied usb cable. Then enable usb connect mode on the maxi (the option popped up when I plugged in the cable). Now you can copy all the contents of the internal SD card to the pc's drive (quite a few GB- but doesn't include the android os files). This appears to be all the files you get when you do updates. I have read that if you copy the files back to the maxi, it should "restore" all the scantool updates.