drivers

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
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Guest

I was just wandering when you install a driver like sound driver, nic driver,
video driver all drivers, is there a common place or someplace that i could
look for so i can get those drivers off that computer. I need it because i
dont have the drivers cd for them anymore and windows did not detect and
install them for me.but i have another computer the exact same with windows
installed that i could get the drivers off of it to use.
 
its a old micron computer and they went out of business. so if i could cust
find the folder that windows installs the drivers in
 
Unfortunately when drivers are installed apart from various files being
placed in certain folders, the registry is amended, so unless you have the
driver installation app you cannot copy from one sys to another.
Whether you can find installation drivers may depend on exactly what drivers
you seek.
 
The following method sometimes works...

If the drivers get installed via an INF file, you can sometimes find the INF
file in the C:\WINNT\INF folder and hopefully the files it references (i.e.
DLL's, etc.) will be somewhere in the WINNT tree (such as C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32
for example).

So if the computer you're fixing has access to the WINNT folder of the
working computer (like a network connection) or if you made a copy of the
WINNT folder and subfolders on a CD or DVD, try telling it to look for
drivers in the this WINNT/INF folder. (One note, I think you have to either
un-hide the INF folder, or else set the folder option to show hidden files
and folders.)

Assuming the correct INF file is found, it will then probably prompt you for
where the individual driver files are. I usually just do a search through
the tree for the files and point it to the folder the file is found in. If
the files are scattered around, you might have to do this a few times to
find them all.

If you're lucky, this will work. If not, at least you tried.

I often use this approach when I have to wipe and reinstall the OS on a
machine that I don't have the driver disks for. I keep a temporary backup
copy of the windows folder to snag the drivers out of, and then delete it
when I'm all done. It usually works pretty well.
 
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