driver backups

[BillW50]

In J. P. Gilliver (John) typed:

Assuming (a) the netbook manufacturer remains in existence (b) they
continue to support that model [granted, most hardware manufacturers
_do_ keep old drivers available, but not _always] (c) for the OS of
your choice.

I wish! Asus for example keeps them online for a year or two and then
they are gone. Luckily they do give you a recovery disc which is getting
rarer all of the time.

 

[BillW50]

In Char Jackson typed:

I'll take your word for it. I haven't experienced it myself...yet.

If I ever run into it, I assume I'd just look for a newer version of
the driver for whatever piece of hardware isn't working. The whole
scenario doesn't sound too plausible, though. I'm having trouble
imagining how it would happen.

I've seen this a lot especially with games. The game crashes with the
current video driver you have. Go to the chip maker website and get the
latest and greatest and that makes it worse. Then you find one somewhere
else which is older than any one you have tried before and it works like
a charm. But people who don't know what they are talking about wouldn't
know anything about this.

 

[BillW50]

In Char Jackson typed:

Say what? Your meds are wearing off. You sound like a crazy person.
Again.

Naw... trolls like you are the crazy people. Making stories up about
others, living in denial, and twisting the truth every chance you can
get.

 

[BillW50]

In Char Jackson typed:

Such as?


That's a good reason to manage your drivers individually rather than
trusting them to a program that you have no control over.

Oh man, Char you are so inexperienced and are something else! With a
driver backup program, the drivers have already been installed on the
system. Now the order of the drivers being plugged back in doesn't
matter, as the results are the same. It is only important when you use
the driver install, not backup. As the driver install only uses the
files that works best with your system. And if you install the drivers
individually, the install might get the wrong information if you install
them in the wrong order. And you can only screw up from a driver backup
if it is on different hardware. Then you should use individual driver
installs again. Geez!

 

[BillW50]

In Char Jackson typed:

Huh? It's a simple task...

Actually no! Games sometimes only work with a very narrow range of video
driver builds for one. And the silly Synaptics TouchPad drivers seem to
be problematic with scrolling with some applications. And some builds
work fine and some don't. But you're an inexperienced computer user, so
you probably haven't seen this stuff yet.

 

[BillW50]

In Char Jackson typed:

You've imagined a problem where there isn't one. As others have said
earlier in the thread, just because an updated driver becomes
available doesn't mean you need to install it. If it addresses a
problem you're not having, or adds a feature you don't want, just skip
it. If you do download and install it, add it to your driver store so
that you can use it again in the future, if necessary. It's really
that simple.

Funny, I say the same thing except it includes far more than drivers.

 

[BillW50]

In Char Jackson typed:

It's just that simple. I don't know why some people fall for the
so-called driver backup tools/sites.

Simple, driver backup programs save time. It is like you just install
one driver and you are done.

 

[Char Jackson]

Yeah, I think that's what it comes down to for me too. I used two of those
programs a long time ago to make the driver backups, but don't recall ever
having any occasion to use them. Nowadays if something gets messed up
while I've been playing around with the system, I just restore my current
system's image backup, which takes all of a whopping 15 minutes (using SATA2
drives).

Different strokes, I guess. I just fix what got messed up and use the
other 13-14 minutes for something else.

 

[Char Jackson]

I can wait 15 minutes for a no brainer system restore operation.

A friend told me a few years ago that he thought it was odd that older
people were so careless with their time, seeing as how they probably
have so little of it left. He was joking, but there's a bit of truth
there, as well.

He was 84 when he told me that. He died 15 months later, just after
turning 86. He was active up to and including his last day.

 

[Char Jackson]

That's what much of the new stuff is all about, but I know that point
escapes you (and plenty of others), however. Adding features that
few ever need or want - is not "wanted change".

I consider myself very fortunate that I don't see the world as you do.
Maybe you feel the same about me, and if so, I think we can agree that
neither of us would change places with the other, come hell or high
water.

 

[BillW50]

In Char Jackson typed:

Different strokes, I guess. I just fix what got messed up and use the
other 13-14 minutes for something else.

Ah. wisdom from the inexperienced. Using driver backup software saves me
probably 10 to 15 minutes.

 

[BillW50]

In Char Jackson typed:

I consider myself very fortunate that I don't see the world as you do.
Maybe you feel the same about me, and if so, I think we can agree that
neither of us would change places with the other, come hell or high
water.

I have no problems learning many new things everyday. But when the so
called new and improved is less productive than the old, I now have a
problem.

 

[BillW50]

In glee typed:

Offhand, I can't think of a scenario where having the installers for
the drivers would not be the better option. From your description of
the driver backup and restore apps, they might be faster to restore
drivers if they get everything, but they might not get them all
backed up completely in the first place.

The rare times it gets a driver wrong, it didn't get all of it. And they
tend to be really one of these off the wall drivers that installs in
very unusable ways. But if you run across one of these, no problem. Just
install this one from the driver install.

 

[BillW50]

In Char Jackson typed:

To be honest, I know very few people who have as many computer-related
problems as you do. I'm not sure if I know any, but I'm trying to be
kind.

Piece of cake Char. Inexperienced people like you who needs to learn how
to use a computer first, won't see problems generally. Since I am really
experienced, I find bugs really fast. Like that Notepad save bug bugged
me right away. And the stupid bug is still with us today and Microsoft
has never fixed it.

 

[BillW50]

In Char Jackson typed:

You need to get some personal experience so you don't have to rely on
things you hear.

You need personal experience before you speak. I use WMP 9, 10, 11, and
12. And 9 and 10 are still my favorite versions.

 

[glee]

In Char Jackson typed:

Oh man, Char you are so inexperienced and are something else! With a
driver backup program, the drivers have already been installed on the
system. Now the order of the drivers being plugged back in doesn't
matter, as the results are the same. It is only important when you use
the driver install, not backup. As the driver install only uses the
files that works best with your system. And if you install the drivers
individually, the install might get the wrong information if you
install
them in the wrong order. And you can only screw up from a driver
backup
if it is on different hardware. Then you should use individual driver
installs again. Geez!

That makes no sense whatsoever. Yes, the drivers are installed when you
use the app to make the backup, but you would not be using the restore
feature unless the drivers got horked and were not installed properly
anymore, or if drivers were uninstalled for some reason or accidentally,
or if you were reinstalling Windows and needed to install your device
drivers. THOSE are the scenarios when you would need the backups for
restore purposes.... and working drivers would NOT be on the system at
those times, hence the need to restore them. So, the order is as
important then as it is using the installers, because the circumstances
are the same.

 

[glee]

In Char Jackson typed:

That is because they usually charge by the hour and don't want to get
the job done too quickly.

That's absurd.

 

[glee]

In J. P. Gilliver (John) typed:

It is very quick and saves a lot of time. But those that get paid by
the
hour don't want to save time though. As they want to milk it and go
through the mundane task of installing every single one individually.
Some of us have better things to do than to wait and keep the clock
running. ;-)

Obviously you don't do this for a living, or you'd know that is the
exact opposite of the truth.

 

[glee]

In Char Jackson typed:

I've seen this a lot especially with games. The game crashes with the
current video driver you have. Go to the chip maker website and get
the
latest and greatest and that makes it worse. Then you find one
somewhere
else which is older than any one you have tried before and it works
like
a charm. But people who don't know what they are talking about
wouldn't
know anything about this.

That's been common knowledge for, oh, at least 15 years or more.

 

[BillW50]

In glee typed:

That makes no sense whatsoever. Yes, the drivers are installed when
you use the app to make the backup, but you would not be using the
restore feature unless the drivers got horked and were not installed
properly anymore, or if drivers were uninstalled for some reason or
accidentally, or if you were reinstalling Windows and needed to
install your device drivers. THOSE are the scenarios when you would
need the backups for restore purposes.... and working drivers would
NOT be on the system at those times, hence the need to restore them.
So, the order is as important then as it is using the installers,
because the circumstances are the same.

Sure it doesn't make any sense to an inexperienced one like yourself.
That is because you have no experience in such matters.

When you use the longer method of driver install, the install has to
figure out which files would work better for your system. Like some
drivers may have files tailored made for Intel, AMD, or whatever. So if
it doesn't get it right, you could have serious problems. That is why
installing drivers in the right order is important. So the later drivers
have an idea what is there.

With Driver Backups, there is no trying to figure out which are the best
files to use as that was already done before. And it places the driver
files that were there before. And if it was originally installed with
say Intel chipsets, the Driver Backup plugs in the same whether it
really is or not. If it is the same machine, no problem. Trying to use
them on another machine with different chips, well a Driver Backup would
then get it wrong. But that is not why you use a Driver Backup in the
first place, now is it?