drivers

I want to reformat my hard drive, but I'd like to save the drivers installed.
Are the video, sound, etc. drivers all in one place? Where?

"mhs mom" wrote in message
...

I want to reformat my hard drive, but I'd like to save the drivers
installed.
Are the video, sound, etc. drivers all in one place? Where?

Because there is no standard for this, you must find
out for yourself by reviewing driver filepaths. Each is
listed in / Device Manager / Properties / Drivers

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

See the two at the bottom of this list...

Once you have a functioning system, especially one close to a clean
install, do a full system backup. If you have multiple partitions, I
guess a backup is a bit more complex. It depends upon the ties between
the Registry & the other partitions, as to whether they must be backed
up concurrently. Also, if you've changed the hardware since the backup,
you may need to change it back before a restore.

http://home.satx.rr.com/badour/index.html Backup & partitioning strategy
http://home.wanadoo.nl/geurt/home.html Extended Operating System Loader
http://powerquest.com/driveimage/ Drive Image
http://www.acronis.com/products/trueimage/ TrueImage
http://www.arjsoftware.com ARJ Archiver
http://www.betterbackup.com/ Retrospect CD Backup
http://www.bootitng.com/ 's BootIt NG, has a variety of backup
capabilities: Copy to HDD, or Image to HDD or to CD. (TBIView, freely
downloadable, can retrieve individual files from an Image.)
Shrink/expand your partitions without data loss. Multi-boot, if you
dare. Free, run from floppy, but pay up as I did if satisfied. To
install & use beyond 30 days, $34.95.
http://www.cdrfaq.org/ CD R/W Backup
http://www.cyberiapc.com/backup.htm MyOwnBackup (MOB) (Free)
http://www.han-soft.com/habt.php Auto Backup (30-day free trial)
http://www.hp.com/cgi-bin/cposupport...&p=hpcdwriter2
Simple Backup
http://www.karenware.com/ PtReplicator (Free)
http://www.lifesaverbackup.com/
http://www.mvps.org/links.html Should have good info
http://www.pcmag.com/ Lots & lots of sturdy downloads. There is a $20
yearly charge now.
http://www.powerquest.com/partitionmagic Partition Magic
http://www.ranish.com/part/ Ranish Partition Manager
http://www.rescue-me.net/gold.html
http://www.simtel.net/pub/dl/58307.shtml Backups
http://www.stompinc.com/bump/bump_details.phtml?stp Backup MyPC
http://www.thirdstar.net/thirdstar_datarecovery.htm Data recovery
http://www.tomsterdam.com/ BU process, performance, etc.
http://www.v-com.com/product/pc_ind.html Partition Commander
http://www.veritas.com Backup apps
http://www.xxcopy.com/ Detailed Procedure Copy (Free)
http://www.zeleps.com/ Partition re-sizer (Free)

All gathered at this site. Whichever you choose, approach it carefully
and verify all is well. After making a copy, run Scandisk/Defrag on it.
If it's an Image, use it's verify option; perhaps, restore it and do a
Scandisk/Defrag.

http://www.pchelpandconsulting.com/links/windows.html WinDrvExpert
http://www.jermar.com/wdrvbck.htm WinDrvBckup free version

Those last two supposedly back up all currently installed drivers, such
that they can be reinstalled. I never tried it but have seen a favorable
report.


--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
should things get worse after this,
PCR

"mhs mom" wrote in message
...
| I want to reformat my hard drive, but I'd like to save the drivers
installed.
| Are the video, sound, etc. drivers all in one place? Where?

Saving the drivers themselves will be no help. You need the drivers installation
packages for each device. There's much more installing a device than just
copying a few files to wherever they belong. There's also Registry entries and
often many other configure, detect and diagnose procedures involved.

Whether from original installation CDs or floppies, or from downloaded files,
you should have those drivers installation packages somewhere--unless you
disposed of them, in which case you'll simply have to go out there and find new
ones.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS MVP Shell/User

"mhs mom" wrote in message
...
I want to reformat my hard drive, but I'd like to save the drivers installed.
Are the video, sound, etc. drivers all in one place? Where?