YES! YOU CAN BACKUP ALL YOUR DRIVERS!
but you need to copy ALL files of your C:WINDOWS directory.
USE ACRONIS OR GPARTED OR ANYTHING THAT BACKUP YOUR WINDOWS DIRECTORY!
Windows itself will not give you access to all the files.
I did it with gparted, tar.gz-ed C:WINDOWS to D:WINDOWS.tar.gz
then the usual, insert windows cd, format C: reinstall…
when you are on the desktop, here is the easy way to reinstall your drivers:
1. unpack D:WINDOWS.tar.gz to D:
2. go to device manager, r-click on anything that has no driver yet (yellow question mark)
say no in the next dialog… the auto-driver stuff never worked under xp, kind of works in win 7. but not always. you can give it a try in 7.
you have the driver… no automatic installation.
select „this source“ now navigate to D:WINDOWSinf and hit next/weiter
SUPRISE! SUPRISE! it found your driver!
if you get this message
either: manually search D:WINDOWS for this file
or try the following paths:
D:WINDOWSWINDOWSSYSTEM32DRIVERS
D:WINDOWSWINDOWSSYSTEM32
D:WINDOWSWINDOWSSYSTEM
D:WINDOWSWINDOWS
D:WINDOWSWINDOWSSYSTEM32i386
… one of them should have the file windows is looking for….