I have a very large TFS project where my local copy's mappings have been screwed up beyond repair. What is the best way to get rid of my local copy and get a new one that will not make the server copy explode or make me have to redo the mapping manually?
If you open Source Control Explorer and then open the 'Edit Workspaces' dialog, that will allow you to delete your existing workspace and create a new one.
When you create the new one, you can explictly choose which server paths you want mapped to each local path. You should only have a mapping for directories that you actually need.