Drivers

[Potatoman]

I have an old laptop. I need to format the drive, how do i back up the drivers for sound, grpahics etc...? can it be done in Device Manager? I understand the files are in the system32 folder.

[vehelpfulguy]

It will be almost impossible to get the all drivers out of the system32 folder, so you have four options I think:

1) Did the laptop come with some CDs ?. If you have them you will probably find the drivers on there somewhere.

2) You may also have a 'restore CD' which will restore all of Windows and its drivers as well (assuming you want to reinstall the same version of Windows).

3) The drivers may be on the hard disk, in a folder called DRIVERS perhaps.

4) If you know the make and model number of the laptop you can probably download them from the companies web site.

Note that if you plan to install a different version of Windows from the one you currently have the drivers will not work.

So if you are currently on say Windows 98 and you plan to go to Windows XP you will need to get a new set of drivers for that version of Windows (if they are available, if it is an old laptop then they may not have been written).

[PodgeMaster]

You could try
http://www.majorgeeks.com/Driver_Collector_d3982.html, once done you can copy the drivers to a cd. The other option is a windows update, sometimes that will find the drivers. The final option is http://www.driverguide.com/ , login with the username drivers and password all

[wideboy]

Podgemaster, there is a comma at the end of your 'Major Geeks' link which stops it loading.

Thanks for the link though, there is some good stuff there.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/Driver_Collector_d3982.html

[bulbousdome]

If you are upgrading your windows system then chances are the windows install CD will have the basic drivers on the disk. I recently did a format on an old Compaq Presario running Windows 98 which I upgraded to Windows XP, it found every piece of hardware except the modem, so a word of warning make sure you download the modem driver prior to formatting and then you can connect to the Internet to update as required