Technical Tips from Micro2000 - Backing up drivers

Technical Tips from Micro2000 - Backing up drivers:

Backing Up Drivers

Why Back up Device Drivers?

If you find yourself in the situation of having to reformat your drive and install a new operating system, you will find that some of your hardware devices won't work because the device drivers for those devices are no longer there.
Your only choice at that point is to reinstall the drivers from the CD or floppy that came with the device, or, if you don't have it or can't find it, go out on the web to find drivers. It's an extra and time-consuming step that, with a little preparation, can be completely avoided.
The preparation is simple: Before you reformat your drive, back up your device drivers so they can be restored after your new OS installation.
Backup and Restore of Drivers
There are two ways to do this:
1. Locate every single file associated with every single driver, and back it up manually. If you go to Device Manager (in Windows XP, located in the Control Panel under Administrative Tools and Computer Management), you can right-click on each hardware device, go to the �drivers� tab, and see all the files associated with that driver. The number of files average 2 to 8, depending on the driver. You then have to go to these files (you can't actually access them from Device Manager), and back each of them up. You have to make sure you get all of the files for each driver; otherwise the driver won't function when you restore it.
This is obviously a painstaking process, and subject to many errors. So many, in fact, that we can't recommend it as a solution.
As you might guess, there are far easier methods!
2. Use a software product designed to easily back up your drivers. There are a number of them out there, but one which we have found to be especia"