Backing up drivers in Windows. Driver backup or how to save installed drivers
Usually, when reinstalling Windows, situations arise when you need to restore the most necessary things - this. It's good if you have installation disks with them. This is for the motherboard, video card, sound card, etc. What to do if they are not there, but drivers are needed? You can, of course, resort to the help of the Internet and download what you need from there, but there are situations when either it is not in automatic mode or you need to search the sites yourself at the risk of getting it. Therefore, I will describe to you a method where you can restore old drivers quickly and surely.
I will not describe what drivers are; I will only briefly write that a driver is a kind of utility that “explains” to the operating system what kind of devices are connected to it and how to work with them. If there are no drivers, there will be no normal operation of the devices.
Often, Windows already has minimal and standard drivers preinstalled, even for a video card, but they will not provide full functionality with the computer, so you need to install your own (original) drivers for each device.
I have already written above how to install the “firewood” in the standard way (via the disks that were included with the devices and the “computer”), and now I will explain how to make this process easier and more convenient.
Of course, to solve such a common problem, many methods and programs have already been invented. I will write about one of these programs in this article. The program is called Double driver and you can download it from the tab Downloads by selecting the program itself and one of the download sites
And yet, you don’t have to wait until you need to reinstall the system. You can make this copy of the drivers at any time or once every 2-3 months (whichever is more convenient for you) and save it somewhere on a flash drive or hard drive. Just in case, but it might also come in handy later.
Drivers are an important component of the interaction between the computer hardware and the operating system and the software installed on it. Therefore, when experimenting with them or updating them, it is recommended to create a backup copy of the already installed drivers, so that if something happens, you can restore the normal operation of the computer. Today we will tell you about a small utility called Double Driver, with which you can quickly make driver backups.
Double Driver is a free program that is, in the truest sense of the word, a driver manager for devices connected to the computer’s motherboard with the ability to back them up. The utility, like a file manager, displays all drivers installed in the operating system in the form of a list, and also allows you to save this list and print it.
The most popular function of the Double Driver utility is the backup of Windows 8, 7, Vista and XP drivers. Most users choose this particular program to work because it is free and the speed of driver backup is very fast. By the way, in just a couple of minutes it can create a complete backup copy of an operating system that has been installed for more than a year, and, therefore, it has accumulated quite a few drivers. In addition, when creating copies, the utility sorts all files into folders whose names correspond to the names of the devices. In addition to sorting by folders, the utility also contains a filter in its functionality that filters all drivers by their developers, for example, from Microsoft, etc.
Backing up your drivers
You can create a backup copy of the drivers installed in the system quickly and in just a couple of clicks using the Double Driver program, which can be downloaded from the link below. The utility does not require installation and can be used on any removable media.
Launch the utility on your PC and in its main window, in the top menu, click on the “Backup” button, then click on “ScanCurrentSystem”, as shown in the figure below.
Next, check the checkboxes next to those drivers for which you are going to make a backup copy, and then click “Backup Now”. You can mark them all if you have doubts that you have marked the right ones.
In the dialog box that appears, indicate to the program the location on your hard drive where it should save the backup copy of the drivers, and also activate the “Compressed (zipped) folder” radio button if you want the copy to be compressed into an archive. In addition, if you need to create a self-extracting archive, then instead of the above radio button, activate “Single file self extract (executable)”. Click “Ok” to start the copy creation process.
Wait until the Double Driver utility finishes its work and informs you about it with a corresponding message.
The created archive with a backup copy of the drivers will be stored in the location you previously specified and will have the name of your motherboard model, as well as the date the backup was created. To restore drivers from this archive, you need to unpack it, then run the installation wizard and follow its instructions and tips.
Similar materials
Drivers are a fairly important part of the operating system. Although, most of these drivers can be easily restored, since the necessary disks are available, or the drivers are simply included in the standard Windows package, or they can be downloaded from the hardware manufacturer’s website.
Still, there are times when drivers cannot be obtained from other places. For example, drivers for old equipment that is no longer supported, or, for example, unique home-written drivers. This is why sometimes you should think about creating a backup copy of your drivers.
As a possible solution, you can download and install one of the driver backup programs. Such programs can not only create copies, but also restore drivers. That is why such programs are used not only for backup, but also for transferring drivers for computers of the same type - this procedure saves a lot of time (you do not need to download anything or install each driver separately).
On the other hand, there is an easy way to make this backup on your own, without installing any additional programs. And this method also has its advantages. First of all, you are not dependent on programs. For example, some of these programs do not have portable versions and must be installed. Secondly, drivers do not break so often, so setting aside a little time for manual restoration is not a very costly task. Thirdly, if something goes wrong, you will always have a way out.
In Windows 7, all drivers are located in several directories located in the system directory "%SystemRoot%\System32\". Two standard protected folders "DriverStore" and "drivers". And sometimes it happens that there is also a "DrvStore" directory. These directories must be completely copied.
In addition, you also need to completely copy the "%systemroot%\inf\" directory. This directory contains information files for installing the drivers themselves. There is no way to install the driver without these files. Sometimes these files are forgotten, thinking that driver files alone will be enough.
Note: Of course, you don't have to copy all the directories completely. If you are tech-savvy enough, then you only need to copy the necessary files.
- User Account Control in Windows 7/XP/Vista
How to get a list of installed drivers on a computer? Technical Tips
"Seven", although it looks quite interesting in terms of design and security, is still not immune from critical errors, and it often has to be reinstalled from scratch. At the same time, not every user knows how to save drivers before reinstalling Windows 7, for example, when switching from an “expert”, not to mention the situation when a critical failure occurred in Windows 7 itself.
Let's see what can be done in such a situation. In particular, we will consider issues related to the situation when the original driver disk and Internet connection are not at hand. Another side will be touched upon separately: when it comes to specialized programs that work either with or without an Internet connection. In the question of how to save drivers on a laptop, for example, no matter how much you might want to, they cannot be discounted. But first things first.
How to save drivers when reinstalling Windows 7: general questions
Let's start, perhaps, with the very concept of the technology used to save a backup copy. Indeed, this is precisely a backup copy of installed drivers, which may have a version higher than that contained in the original database of the “seven” itself.
But even here a certain paradox arises. Of course, if you have the appropriate utility or your own system tools, you can create a copy of it, but there will be a lot of unnecessary junk that takes up quite a lot of space, and the question of how to save drivers when reinstalling Windows 7, in general, will even be pushed back by second plan. The system itself, even if restored, installs its own components, as they say, regardless of faces.
Why is this necessary?
This begs another burning question. Many will ask, why do all these operations? As an explanation, we can only cite what was said above: the database of divers of the “seven” itself, even with all its installed update packages, is unable to update or install drivers for specific devices. Yes, it will simply install the most suitable driver, in its opinion, and display a message that it is the best of all that is available.
But then, when entering the same “Device Manager”, the user will suddenly see a yellow background with an exclamation mark on some device, which will only indicate that it is not working correctly or not working at all. This is where the user will begin to wonder how to save the drivers when reinstalling Windows 7, and until the moment when the re-installation process began (everything worked well before).
How to restore from a copy
Now a little about what you can do with the created copy (we’ll talk about it a little later and in more detail). In principle, with certain settings, it can be easily saved in the system partition (in the same original location (the Drivers folder of the System 32 directory of the Windows root directory) or in another logical volume, or even written to a regular flash drive or optical disk - that’s whatever you like .
The copy itself looks like some kind of archive or image, unpacking which you can integrate previously installed drivers into the system. Let’s see now how to save drivers when reinstalling Windows 7 on a USB flash drive, any other media, or on a hard drive. Restoration is performed by simply specifying the location where the copy is saved, rather than the system's own database directory.
Many, however, argue that it is impossible to do this using the system’s own means, but will have to use a bunch of special programs. We beg to differ.
How to save drivers when installing Windows 7 without the Internet: basic methods
Of course, if you have an Internet connection, the question of saving copies of drivers disappears by itself, because there is nothing easier than simply downloading updated programs from the manufacturer’s or developer’s website. But what to do when the connection is broken for some reason or simply does not work? This is where knowledge of how to save drivers when reinstalling Windows 7 without the Internet comes to the rescue. Let's see how to do this using the simplest methods.
Method for saving copies of drivers using native Windows 7 tools
So, we have come close to solving the pressing problem of how to save drivers when reinstalling Windows 7 without programs. To do this, you should use the universal Power Shell module (service).
To get started, you can use the search system, where you just need to enter the name of the service and then click on the result. You must run it as an administrator, even if you are the administrator on your computer or laptop. Not about that now.
Next in the line you need to enter the command Export-WindowsDriver -Online -Destination “drive letter”:\DriverBackup (for disks and system partitions the letter is indicated without quotes). Thus, you can set the storage of copies of drivers in a virtual partition of the hard drive, which has nothing in common with the system one. Roughly speaking, if Windows is installed on drive C, but there is partition D, simply indicate it. If the destination directory is missing, it will be created automatically during the copying process.
Yes, please immediately note that copies of drivers will not be saved in their original form, but in the form of files like oemNN.inf (.inf is an extension of the standard driver installation file). What’s most interesting is that not only system files and programs will be copied, but also the accompanying dynamic libraries in the DLL format. So, if you see them appear during the copying process, do not be surprised.
What programs may be needed?
Today there are quite a lot of programs for creating copies. However, among all this variety, it is worth mentioning such utilities as Slim Drivers, Double Driver, Driver Checker and the like. Copies of all installed drivers are created automatically, and in the settings you can specify the destination folder (even removable media).
What is the best medium to use?
As for this issue, the right of choice remains with the user. However, in light of recent trends, it is not recommended to use them because they are subject to too rapid physical wear. But external USB drives, even regular flash drives, even hard drives, or memory cards, are much better suited for this.
Here the question will mainly depend on how to restore the drivers from a copy. And not everyone knows that when setting a USB device as a priority for booting (if it is used as a recovery tool, for example), it must be inserted into a slot or port before turning on the computer terminal or laptop (otherwise it simply will not be detected, and the system will say, that there is no disk to boot (or it will simply load regular Windows). Of course, you can use such copying, but it is better to copy the drivers to the system boot disk or other device, and when the system starts prompting you to install divers, indicate their location on removable media. (if the drivers were originally saved there or simply copied from the main location).
Is it possible not to make a copy?
It goes without saying that the processes of creating copies of drivers are quite labor-intensive. On the other hand, you can create a copy once, twice, etc. But not every time we do such things?
But here, if you have programs like Driver Booster and an active Internet connection, it’s better not to make copies at all. When the installed utility runs even in the background, it automatically detects whether there is a new version of the driver, or maybe some driver is simply missing. The installation will be carried out completely automatically, and directly from the equipment manufacturer’s website.
Instead of an afterword
As you can see, everything is not as complicated as it might seem at first glance. As for choosing a solution, it is better to use third-party utilities, since the system’s own tools, although they look attractive, sometimes refuse to work, especially if the computer is infected with viruses. However, everyone chooses for themselves which solution to apply.
Backing up drivers in the Windows 10 operating system must be done before reinstalling the system, or before making changes to the computer hardware. This is the easiest way to reinstall drivers.
The user can archive the drivers installed on the computer in order to restore all drivers after reinstalling the system, or in the event of a system failure, restore the desired driver from the archive. Sometimes, difficulties arise in finding the necessary drivers, especially for laptops, since manufacturers often equip the same models with hardware from different manufacturers.
Driver backups are performed by specialized programs for working with drivers. You can create a backup copy of the drivers installed on your computer directly in Windows 10.
In this article, we'll look at four ways to back up drivers in Windows 10: two ways using the command line and two ways using Windows PowerShell.
Before creating driver backups, first create a folder in the root of the disk (directly on the disk itself) where you want to save the backups. Give the folder a clear name in English, in this example I named the folder “DriverBackup”.
Backing up drivers using the command line
Run . Enter the following command into the command line interpreter window (you can copy it from here):
Pnputil /export-driver * D:\DriverBackup
Please note that you may only have a "C" drive, not a "D" drive like I have, and may also have a different folder name. Replace the “D:\DriverBackup” part of the code with your data. In the following codes from this article, also change part of the code to your location to save the drivers.
Wait until the drivers are copied, which will take some time. After the process is completed, the command line interpreter window will display the result of this operation.
You can then open the folder to ensure that the driver backups are saved on your computer.
Backing up your drivers using DISM
The second method for saving a backup copy of the drivers will also be done on the command line using the DISM.exe utility.
Run Command Prompt as Administrator. In a command prompt window, enter the following command (note the drive name and the name of your folder):
Dism /online /export-driver /destination:D:\DriverBackup
Then press the “Enter” key on your keyboard.
After this, the process of exporting copies of drivers to the folder selected for saving will begin.
Once completed, close the command prompt.
Saving a backup copy of drivers in Windows PowerShell (method 1)
Run Windows PowerShell as an administrator. Next, enter the following code into the Windows PowerShell window:
Export-WindowsDriver -Online -Destination D:\DriverBackup
Then click on the "Enter" button.
Wait until the drivers are exported to the backup folder.
That's it, copies of the drivers are saved.
Creating a driver backup in Windows PowerShell (method 2)
The second method differs from the previous one in that a text file describing the saved drivers will be created in the save folder.
Run Windows PowerShell as an administrator. Enter the following commands (copy from here):
$drivers = Export-WindowsDriver -Online -Destination D:\DriverBackup $drivers | ft ProviderName, ClassName, Date, Version -auto | Out-File D:\DriverBackup\drivers.txt
The backup process will take some time.
Once the export is complete, open the folder you selected to save the backup. There you will find the file “drivers.txt”, which records detailed information about the copied drivers.
Restoring drivers from a backup in Windows 10
To install drivers from a backup after reinstalling Windows, copy the backup copy of the drivers from the permanent storage location to your computer's hard drive.
In the “Update Drivers” window, to answer the question: “How do you want to search for drivers?”, select the “Search for drivers on this computer” option.
In the next window, select the folder on your computer where the drivers are saved, and then click on the “Next” button.
Then install the required driver from the list provided.
Conclusions of the article
In the Windows 10 operating system, you can back up drivers without using third-party programs using system tools. Backing up drivers is done using the command line and Windows PowerShell.
