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Backing up Drivers Before Re-Format


zombiegod

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Hi,

A friend of mine has a PC in dire need of a reformat. He has no drivers discs...

I know I can reformat his machine, but I am absolutely lost when searching for drivers.

Is there any program 'Freely' available that allows me to save his installed Sound/Graphic Drivers to a disc, so once I've done the deeds I can easily put them back on?

Many Thanks,

Rob.

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I wouldn't back up the installation directory, as there will be other things, such as the registry needed backed up too. It will all become a mess.

You could do what I do, and back up the latest installation files so that upon the reformat, it's simply a question of installing from disk.

Also, I remember an article in a recent edition of a PC magazine over here that recommended DriverZone. I haven't looked at this website, nor have I tried it out but it was mentioned as something worth looking at. It scans your system and tells you which updates are available.

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Well it looks like I'm in for a weekend of Driver installing at any rate. He's asked me to take over & is bringing it over to my place as a last resort.

He's reformatted, has no sound, has tried upping his monitors res' to 1024X768 and managed to get an Out of Range Notification which he can't recover from... I guess he has no display drivers either...

I know I need to boot in safe mode to rectify the display issue. I hope the web link you provided me with is an easy route to a quick Driver fix.

I'll let you know how I get on.

Cheers for the info,

Rob.

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If it's a Dell, hp, or brand name it's pretty simple to go through the manufacturers site and get the drivers you need, if not , try unkown devices from here http://halfdone.com/ukd or SIW from gtopala.com they should help you identify the devices that need drivers. good luck with it.

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i was using driver agent for a while.it is a pay program(29.00)u.s.it worked pretty well;however since i build my own systems i just get drivers from the component manufacturers websites.seems there ought to be a driver disk that came with ur friends machine.

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i was using driver agent for a while.it is a pay program(29.00)u.s.it worked pretty well;however since i build my own systems i just get drivers from the component manufacturers websites.seems there ought to be a driver disk that came with ur friends machine.

No discs came bundled with the machine, a HP Pavilion. I ended up just going to the manufacturers web site & d/loading them easily enough.

Cheers,

Rob.

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i was using driver agent for a while.it is a pay program(29.00)u.s.it worked pretty well;however since i build my own systems i just get drivers from the component manufacturers websites.seems there ought to be a driver disk that came with ur friends machine.

No discs came bundled with the machine, a HP Pavilion. I ended up just going to the manufacturers web site & d/loading them easily enough.

Cheers,

Rob.

hp should have a partiton harddrive with the recovery file there. you are allowed to make 1 dvd recovery back on disk. you can put the disk in or just use the opitions in win xp or vista to access the recovery file part and it will reset to factory setting. (minus the fact that it will still know you made 1 dvd recovery back disk) i found that one should just leave c drive on the laptop bare. no games, p2p and newsgroups on it. use an external for file getting (not sure if it resets hp games)

i found hp update site sucking. if you get it to say you instlal it it will then say fail. use ms update for the same type of software/harddrive updates.

unisntall that shitty norton oem for free few days trial version that comes with hp and get anything else :)

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unisntall that shitty norton oem for free few days trial version that comes with hp and get anything else :)

if u need to uninstall norton they have a removel tool on their website,otherwise u will have a problem

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He'd erased the partition with the backup in. Not to worry it's all running smoothly again now.

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He'd erased the partition with the backup in. Not to worry it's all running smoothly again now.

he needs a back up program like acronis disk image or drive clone pro...for a laptop i would go with drive clone pro as it can back up to external usb drives

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I expect a couple of tomatoes to fly for this one but... here goes.

Show the friend the System Restore function on his laptop. I know, its sucks resources to have it on, it is a Windows thing but it has saved a few long distance friends of mine in a pinch.

If not, I am big Acronis fan.

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  • 1 month later...
JunkInternetMail

Fuck this...

Use EVEREST...generate a FULL REPORT...

Then find his hardware manufacturer site for his basics:

Motherboard, graphics card, sound card, etc. Save the drivers to their own folder: Graphics, Motherboard, Lan, Sound, etc.

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Fuck this...

Use EVEREST...generate a FULL REPORT...

Then find his hardware manufacturer site for his basics:

Motherboard, graphics card, sound card, etc. Save the drivers to their own folder: Graphics, Motherboard, Lan, Sound, etc.

also if the person is installing windows xp they need LAN drivers too.

nothing like a stick or dvdr with all the special hardware information

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you are allowed to make 1 dvd recovery back on disk

LOL, it’s want they want you to believe!

unisntall that shitty norton oem for free few days trial version that comes with hp and get anything else if u need to uninstall norton they have a removel tool on their website,otherwise u will have a problem

dock98, you're right on the spot. No more than 3yrs ago a Compaq/HP PC from a relative was having some issues, errors with their internet experience. We later concluded a Symantec Anti-Spam driver was causing the issue, the driver would load, even though this feature was disabled. The damn Norton Suite couldn’t even uninstall on its own showing errors. Not to pile on, but probably for some of us their stand alone uninstall tool(s) might the most useful.

Anyway, glad the pc is running well.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Driver Max

Driver Magician

Driver Genius

All of these are good and you can find pirated versions on most torrent sites. I actually like Driver Max the best because it is very lightweight. You can export the drivers to a directory or a zip file for backup before your re-install. It works like a charm. Searching the internet for drivers sux.

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