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Device drivers back up in XP

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How do I copy/extract all device drivers from XP?

Topic

Why?

In reply to Device drivers back up in XP

My first question is why do you need / want to back up the installed drivers?

I personally prefer to install the latest drivers whenever I perform a clean installation of Windows.

In XP, Microsoft did a much better job of having up to date drivers than with previous versions of Windows.
You can have a reasonably functional PC by just installing XP and any driver updates identified when you run Windows update.

For some hardware, you will want / need to download and install the drivers from the device manufacture.

That said, there are a few software packages that claim to be able to back up your device drivers.
I have not tried any of them, so I don’t know if they are worth using.

The problem with backing up installed drivers is that you need to gather a lot of information from a variety of sources.

Numerous files in the Windows folder and sub-folders.

Date from a number of .inf files.

An ever growing number of registry keys.

Then, you need to put these all back in a manner such that Windows will recognize them properly.

Chas

Cant download drivers if your modem doesn’t function, mouse doesn’t work..

In reply to Why?

ive attempted to do as you said, but it was very difficult to find my exact sound drivers, after i finally kinda got my modem to work after using Stink Old Junk pc to find similar modem files

Zip up drivers.

In reply to Device drivers back up in XP

You have a few options but I will only mention the easiest option available. It is not free though. Look for a program called driverguide pro. It will zip up your current drivers into either a zip file of a self extracting file.

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