Saving Hardware Drivers

[Guest]

Hi Everyone. A family member has given me a laptop. It currently has XP Home
installed on it and I want to do a clean install of XP Professional; I’ll
also be installing MS Office 2000 and then Office XP upgrade over that. I
don’t have any of the driver disks for any of the hardware. What would be the
best way for me to save/backup the driver settings for my installed hardware
so I can reinstall them after installing XP Pro? Also, any of the
applications for my hardware? I don’t care about settings for network,
Outlook, or other things like that since those settings belong to the old
user.

Thx!

 

[paulmd]

Hi Everyone. A family member has given me a laptop. It currently has XP Home
installed on it and I want to do a clean install of XP Professional; I'll
also be installing MS Office 2000 and then Office XP upgrade over that. I
don't have any of the driver disks for any of the hardware. What would be the
best way for me to save/backup the driver settings for my installed hardware
so I can reinstall them after installing XP Pro? Also, any of the
applications for my hardware? I don't care about settings for network,
Outlook, or other things like that since those settings belong to the old
user.

Thx!

I'd perfer to download them from the laptop manufacturor's website, and
burn them to a CD, prior to reinstallation. Avoid thrid party driver
management software. I've yet to see one that works.

 

[DL]

Also there is no need to install Office2k prior to upgrading, just have the
cd available to point to when you install OfficeXP
As allready posted obtain drivers, *including chipset drivers* from the
laptop manu only, NEVER winupdate

 

[JS]

Once you do a clean install none of the old driver files will be on the hard
drive. So before you wipe the current version of Windows off the hard drive,
use a tool like Belarc Advisor to identify the hardware on your PC:
http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

Then download all the necessary drivers (Video, Sound card, Network, etc)
from each vendor's web site and burn them to a CD.
Note that Belarc will also display software key codes which you may need.

JS

 

[Guest]

From the Driver Backup link below Download Inf.exe & WinBackup.exe and put
them in the same directory. Run WinBackup.exe & make sure 'Only Show
Non-Microsft Drivers' is checked. Choose all the drivers and the destination
path. Move them off the machine & keep them close by after your
format/reinstall. Also, I would recommend Microsoft's Print Migrator to move
all your printers from one machine to another.

Driver Backup: http://cobra.tmfweb.nl/download.html
Print Migrator:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...25-CBC9-44DA-B2C9-FFDBC46B0B17&displaylang=en

 

[Guest]

Thank you. I hadn't even thought of that.

I'd perfer to download them from the laptop manufacturor's website, and
burn them to a CD, prior to reinstallation. Avoid thrid party driver
management software. I've yet to see one that works.

 

[Guest]

Thanks. I didn't realize I could install the upgrade without the previous
full version installed. That will save me some time.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for this suggestion, too.

Once you do a clean install none of the old driver files will be on the hard
drive. So before you wipe the current version of Windows off the hard drive,
use a tool like Belarc Advisor to identify the hardware on your PC:
http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

Then download all the necessary drivers (Video, Sound card, Network, etc)
from each vendor's web site and burn them to a CD.
Note that Belarc will also display software key codes which you may need.

JS

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Hi Everyone. A family member has given me a laptop. It currently has XP Home
installed on it and I want to do a clean install of XP Professional; I’ll
also be installing MS Office 2000 and then Office XP upgrade over that. I
don’t have any of the driver disks for any of the hardware. What would be the
best way for me to save/backup the driver settings for my installed hardware
so I can reinstall them after installing XP Pro?

Download the most recent WinXP-specific device drivers from the laptop
manufacturer's web site, and burn them to a CD.

Also, any of the
applications for my hardware?

Same answer.




--

Bruce Chambers

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