Tired of losing drivers when you reinstall XP?

[EricB]

this post was from the old forum.

part of this trick was courtesy of PCWorld

download the proper OS batch file to your desktop or your C drive (It didn't work when I copied it from another partition). If it don't download, copy and paste it in notepad and save it as drivercopy. rename the .txt extension to .bat. viola, you now have a batch file.

echo off
cls
echo This batch file is meant for use ONLY with Windows XP.
echo It copies certain files and folders out of the Windows folder so that
echo they are still on your hard drive when you delete that folder and
echo reinstall Windows.
echo Written by Lincoln Spector for PC World.
pause
md \olddrivers
cd \olddrivers
xcopy c:\windows\help /h /y
xcopy c:\windows\inf /h /r /y
xcopy c:\windows\system /h /r /y
xcopy c:\windows\system32 /h /r /y
xcopy c:\windows\system32\drivers /h /r /y
pause

the actual bat file

XP

these links seemed to expired below

[url=ftp://ftp.pcworld.com/printmag/drivercopyXP.bat]XP[/url]
[url=ftp://ftp.pcworld.com/printmag/drivercopy2K.bat]2000[/url]
[url=ftp://ftp.pcworld.com/printmag/drivercopy98me.bat]98,ME[/url]

open it. it will open command prompt. it will copy the files to your C drive

it will save it as a hidden folder called olddrivers. (you have to unhide them in folder options to see them). you can now burn it to disk (I would burn the batch file too). if you ever have reformat, you can throw this disc in (make you use the add new hardware wizard or update in device manager) when you are done. it will contain all of your latest drivers.

 

[KSoD]

Sticky. Useful for XP users. Have to see if they come up with one for Vista some year soon...

 

[EricB]

it might work right now. I know you just need to change the words to make it work for another OS

 

[KSoD]

It will take more than that. My Vista setup reads exactly like that batch file would read if it was for Vista. Except the Windows XP Part. there is a sharing violation that takes place near the end of the bat file execution.

I bet this has something to do with UAC.

 

[EricB]

It will take more than that. My Vista setup reads exactly like that batch file would read if it was for Vista. Except the Windows XP Part. there is a sharing violation that takes place near the end of the bat file execution.

I bet this has something to do with UAC.

probably

 

[KSoD]

Actually this worked in Vista as well. Without even changing the .bat file. I found the folder. Label olddrivers and all that. Looks exactly as you have it. The reason at first i thought it failed, mine isnt located under the c:\ drive. I didnt run the .bat file from there. I ran it under my Data drive where the olddrivers folder is located.

So it worked. I jsut can not confirm if the drivers would work or not as i have not used this method before with Vista. Next re-isntall i will try these drivers out and see if they work. That will be the final confirmation if the .bat file works for Vista.

 

[EricB]

ok. just remember. for some reason none of these program (driver genius and double driver) seem to install ati video drivers, at least in my experience. but you can get them from their website

 

[KSoD]

Well i use nVidia anyways. But still you should always check for updated driver for the GFX card and that on a fresh install. Most of them are going thru Windows Update now in Vista.

 

[EricB]

you can also right click the hidden folder, select properties and unhide it

 

[Ste]

I guess this is quicker, but I just have all the driver install files backed up on a separate harddrive..