Is there a way to back up all my drivers all at once?

[Smartazz]

Is there a way to back up all my drivers all at once? I'm planning a system reformat soon and I would like to know if there is a quick way to rapidly back up my drivers to reinstall later on. Thanks.

 

[Seekermeister]

Obviously, you can backup the drivers themselves, but unless they are registered by installing them, they would be of no use, I assume that you mean something more. You can backup the entire system for reinstallation, but if you are going to do a clean install, the only other way that I know of is to slipstream them on a new installation disk.

 

[Smilin]

The short answer: NO.


The long answer:
I would suggest this only for emergency use (getting a crippled server going quickly until it can be rebuilt during a maintenance window).

On source:
Copy all the files from your system32\drivers folder.
Copy all the files from your windows\inf folder.

On destination:
Paste drivers, choose to overwrite if prompted.
Paste inf files, choose NOT to overwrite if prompted.

kick off driver install again using one of many methods:
delete device, reboot
delete device, kick off detection wizard in device manager.
hit update driver button on device, have it search automatically.

This is all kinds of NOT best practice. Some items it won't work for. Devices that have software that go with them obviously will only have basic drivers this way. Filter drivers won't get installed this way either.

You don't know some guy named Mahan do you?

 

[aerofan897]

YES there is! I just recently ran across this.
Driver Collector

"Driver Collector is a tool designed to find and collect installed windows drivers for the hardware you select on your PC. Once you tell it which type of drivers you want to collect, it will copy them to a specific folder. This can be very handy when preparing for a format and reinstall of Windows, especially when you or a client have since lost the computers driver disks."

Edit: Fixed link.

 

[bendixG15]

YES there is! I just recently ran across this.
Driver Collector

---------------------------------------------
busted link

 

[nweaver]

all my drivers are in the kernel...

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: nweaver
all my drivers are in the kernel...

Showoff.

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: nweaver
all my drivers are in the kernel...

on disk or in memory?

 

[aerofan897]

Originally posted by: bendixG15
YES there is! I just recently ran across this.
Driver Collector

---------------------------------------------
busted link

Whoops.

http://www.technibble.com/repair-tool-of-the-week-driver-collector/

 

[nweaver]

Originally posted by: Smilin

Originally posted by: nweaver
all my drivers are in the kernel...

on disk or in memory?

both

 

[Smartazz]

Okay thanks a lot for the links to the programs. I'm going to format this computer when I find my windows installation disk and when I buy a motherboard for my conroe and I'll start a new system from there. Does the Core 2 have drivers that need to be installed?

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: nweaver

Originally posted by: Smilin

Originally posted by: nweaver
all my drivers are in the kernel...

on disk or in memory?

both

You have to recompile your kernel if you update a driver?