Backing up drivers etc.

Cork Skate

Hi there,

I have a PC (Packard Bell) with Windows Vista on it but i dont have the Admin logon for it. I want to wipe it and put on XP but before i do it i want to identify and backup all the drivers for it.

Is there any programme/means out there that will allow me to do this?

Cheers

keen

I use Driver Genius, comes with a 15 day free trial plenty of time to do what you need.

Site: http://www.driver-soft.com/

DL link: http://dl.filekicker.com/send/file/146030-EQZB/drvgenpro.exe

Cork Skate

keen wrote: »

I use Driver Genius, comes with a 15 day free trial plenty of time to do what you need.

Site: http://www.driver-soft.com/

DL link: http://dl.filekicker.com/send/file/146030-EQZB/drvgenpro.exe

Thats excellent, cheers for that help.

Do you use it all the times so yeah? Just wondering would it give me enough information so i could go and find the drivers compatible with XP as opposed to Vista. Could this get very messy?

keen

Cork Skate wrote: »

Thats excellent, cheers for that help.

Do you use it all the times so yeah? Just wondering would it give me enough information so i could go and find the drivers compatible with XP as opposed to Vista. Could this get very messy?

Yeah I use it whenever I need to format a machine, it saves all current drivers in use in individual named folders. I save the folder to a USB key and once the OS is installed I copy the folder to the PC and install all devices.

It has an option to update the drivers in use to a different OS, you have to buy the software for that and all additional options to be available. I only ever needed to use it for the same OS.

unnameduser

ill add mydrivers to the list as well. Demo version allows you to back up drivers AFAIK.

JonathanAnon

Well in general I normally take a backup of the whole lot.

For drivers, take down and install the latest drivers from the web, and also save a copy into the folders.

\Drivers\audio
\Drivers\video

Also I keep a copy of any additional software with copies of the license keys

\Software\Paint Shop Pro
\Software\Microsoft Office

etc etc..

also a good idea to take a copy of the i386 folder from your Windows CD, and take a copy of the key also.

keen

JonathanAnon wrote: »

Well in general I normally take a backup of the whole lot.

For drivers, take down and install the latest drivers from the web, and also save a copy into the folders.

\Drivers\audio
\Drivers\video

Also I keep a copy of any additional software with copies of the license keys

\Software\Paint Shop Pro
\Software\Microsoft Office

etc etc..

also a good idea to take a copy of the i386 folder from your Windows CD, and take a copy of the key also.

Driver Genuis is a far easier and quicker way to back up your drivers rather then searching the web downloading each devices driver.

Cork Skate

keen wrote: »

Driver Genuis is a far easier and quicker way to back up your drivers rather then searching the web downloading each devices driver.

Yeah, thats what i'm after. Something to identify and copy all the drivers currently installed, instead of having to do it manually. I'm gonna give Driver Genius a go at the weekend.

Cork Skate

keen wrote: »

I use Driver Genius, comes with a 15 day free trial plenty of time to do what you need.

Site: http://www.driver-soft.com/

DL link: http://dl.filekicker.com/send/file/146030-EQZB/drvgenpro.exe

Hi there,

Having a bit of trouble with Driver Genius now having used it to back up the drivers. It just wont load them. Anyone have any ideas?

yoyo

Cork Skate wrote: »

Hi there,

Having a bit of trouble with Driver Genius now having used it to back up the drivers. It just wont load them. Anyone have any ideas?

Your best off getting drivers from the manufacturers website, in the case this is not feasible google the driver hardware IDs to locate the driver, they'll prob be more up to date too!

Nick

Cork Skate

yoyo wrote: »

Your best off getting drivers from the manufacturers website, in the case this is not feasible google the driver hardware IDs to locate the driver, they'll prob be more up to date too!

Nick

Its trying to track down the hardwares ID thats proving difficult, not a whole lot of info to be found in Device Manager.

bonzodog2

If your manufacturer's site isn't great, in DeviceManager, right-click a device and choose Properties, then the Details tab. The hardware ID is like VEN_xxxx&DEV_yyyy where xxxx is the vendor and yyyy is the device. I used DriverIdentifier recently too.

Cork Skate

bonzodog2 wrote: »

If your manufacturer's site isn't great, in DeviceManager, right-click a device and choose Properties, then the Details tab. The hardware ID is like VEN_xxxx&DEV_yyyy where xxxx is the vendor and yyyy is the device. I used DriverIdentifier recently too.

Yeah, i found this and more importantly i found this .... perfect. Spot on, thanks a million.

I dont know if Driver Genius does something to the drivers, i think i'll opt to download them manually from now on.

bonzodog2

Also note that Vista drivers may be different to XP ones, and there may be several different drivers available for a particular vendor/device item. See what works. Also some items may depend on others, like a modem may need a soundcard installed first. See what XP detects for itself first too, then look for what it didn't get. Use XP SP3 if you can. If you have a SATA HDD you need a version of XP with SATA drivers included.

Cork Skate

bonzodog2 wrote: »

Use XP SP3 if you can. If you have a SATA HDD you need a version of XP with SATA drivers included.

I found that out recently as well, if its not SP3 then it just wont see the drive.

PapaQuebec

yoyo wrote: »

Your best off getting drivers from the manufacturers website, in the case this is not feasible google the driver hardware IDs to locate the driver, they'll prob be more up to date too!

Nick

Over the 15 years that I've been in the IT game I've built up a massive library of drivers downloaded from manufacturers sites, along with .iso's of hundreds of "driver and utilities" CDs/DVDs.
I also recommend Driver Genius. I have a portable version that adds a temporary registry entry thus allowing you to do all the full versions tasks without actually having to do a full install of the app!!

yoyo

PapaQuebec wrote: »

Over the 15 years that I've been in the IT game I've built up a massive library of drivers downloaded from manufacturers sites, along with .iso's of hundreds of "driver and utilities" CDs/DVDs.
I also recommend Driver Genius. I have a portable version that adds a temporary registry entry thus allowing you to do all the full versions tasks without actually having to do a full install of the app!!

Those DVDs full of drivers are very handy, but at the rate hardware updates become obsolete quite quickly. I've never used those driver tools, maybe they'd have saved me many headaches but usually a bit of Googling will find it if you google the Device IDs.
Also [rant mode! ] Sony, Iqon and Advent are just some examples of companies who provide rubbish driver support online. Dell, Samsung, Toshiba are some which are decent.

Nick