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)7

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.

6

you have the driver… no automatic installation.

5

select “this source” now navigate to D:WINDOWSinf and hit next/weiter

4

SUPRISE! SUPRISE! it found your driver!

2

if you get this message

 

1

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….

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