Many PC users are faced with the need to reinstall the Windows operating system. There can be many reasons for this - garbage accumulated due to which the computer began to slow down, viruses on the PC that free antiviruses cannot cope with, various glitches, bugs, and the simplest solution is to reinstall windows.
But after reinstallation, a new problem appears - the lack of drivers. In order not to waste time searching for drivers every time, it is recommended to make a backup copy (backup) in advance. In addition, it is not always easy to find a driver for your device on the Internet, and the driver disk has long been lost or obsolete.
To create a backup, consider two programs: Driver Genius and Double Driver.
Backing Up Your Drivers with Double Driver
Double Driver is a free driver backup software with a simple and easy interface. You can download the Double Driver program from this.
Backup drivers with Double Driver
Restoring Drivers with Double Driver
After reinstalling the system, you must run the Double Driver program via dd.exe:
We are waiting for the end and the restoration of the drivers is finished! Now you know how to quickly and free of charge restore drivers on a new system!
Backing Up Drivers with Driver Genius
Driver Genius is a paid program, but a free version with limited features is also available. In the free version of the program, it is possible to create a backup copy of the drivers, with subsequent restoration (a limited number of drivers with automatic recovery), or manually install the drivers on a reinstalled system.
Backup drivers with Driver Genius
Restoring Drivers with Driver Genius
After reinstalling the system, you need to follow these steps to restore drivers using Driver Genius:
Backing up the 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 the system is reinstalled, or in case of a system failure, restore the required driver from the archive. Sometimes, it is difficult to find the necessary drivers, especially for laptops, as manufacturers often equip the same model with hardware from different manufacturers.
Backup drivers are performed by specialized programs for working with drivers, for example, the free DriverPack Solution program. You can back up the drivers installed on your computer directly in Windows 10.
In this article, we will look at four ways to back up drivers in Windows 10: two ways using the command line and two ways using Windows PowerShell.
Before backing up drivers, first create a folder in the root of the drive (directly on the drive itself) where you want to save the backups. Give the folder a friendly name in English, in this example I named the folder "DriverBackup".
Backing Up Drivers Using the Command Line
Run command prompt as administrator. 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 can only have a "C" drive, not a "D" like mine, as well as 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 for the drivers to finish copying, which will take some time. After the process is completed, the result of this operation will be displayed in the command line interpreter window.
After that, you can open the folder to make sure that the backup copies of the drivers are saved on the computer.
Backing Up Your Drivers Using DISM
The second way to save 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 the command line interpreter window, enter the following command (pay attention to 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 that, the process of exporting driver copies to the folder selected for saving will start.
When finished, close the command prompt.
Backing Up Your Drivers in Windows PowerShell (1 Method)
Run Windows PowerShell as an administrator. Next, enter the following code into the Windows PowerShell window:
Export-WindowsDriver -Online -Destination D:\DriverBackup
Then press the "Enter" button.
Wait until the drivers are exported to the backup folder.
Everything, copies of the drivers are saved.
Backing Up Your Drivers in Windows PowerShell (Method 2)
The second method differs from the previous one in that a text file with a description of 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.
After the export is completed, open the folder selected to save the backup. There you will find the "drivers.txt" file, which contains detailed information about the copied drivers.
Restoring drivers from a backup in Windows 10
To install drivers from a backup after you reinstall Windows, copy the backup drivers from your 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 suggested list.
Conclusion
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.
Good day!
I think many users have encountered the installation of one or another driver, even the new Windows 7, 8, 8.1 operating systems are not always able to independently recognize the device and select a driver for it. Therefore, sometimes you have to download drivers from various sites, install from CD / DVD discs that come with new equipment. In general, it takes a decent amount of time.
In order not to waste this time searching and installing each time, you can make a backup copy of the drivers, and in which case, quickly restore it. For example, many often have to reinstall Windows due to various bugs and glitches - why look for drivers again every time? Or let's say you bought a computer or laptop in a store, but there is no driver disk in the kit (which, by the way, often happens). In order not to look for them in case of problems with Windows OS, you can make a backup copy in advance. Actually, we will talk about this in this article ...
Important!
1) It is best to make a backup copy of the drivers immediately after setting up and installing all the equipment - i.e. when everything works well.
2) To create a backup, you need a special program (more on that below) and preferably a flash drive or disk. By the way, you can save a copy to another partition of your hard drive, for example, if Windows is installed on the C drive, then it is better to place the copy on the D drive.
3) You need to restore drivers from a copy to the same version of Windows OS from which you made it. For example, if you made a copy in Windows 7, then restore it from a copy in Windows 7. If you changed the OS from Windows 7 to Windows 8, and then restore the drivers, some of them may not work correctly!
Programs for creating a backup copy of drivers in Windows OS
In general, there are quite a lot of programs of this kind. In this article, I would like to focus on the best of their kind (of course, in my humble opinion). By the way, all these programs, in addition to creating a backup copy, allow you to find and update drivers for all computer devices (more on this in this article:).
One of the best software for working with drivers. Allows you to search, update, make backups, and restore from them almost any driver for any device. The database of drivers for this program is huge! Actually on it, I will show you how to make a copy of the drivers and restore from it.
http://www.boozet.org/dd.htm
A small free utility for creating driver backups. Many users use this one, I personally did not use it so often (for all the time a couple of times). Although I admit that it can be better than Slim Drivers.
Not a bad program that allows you to easily and quickly make and restore from a copy of the driver. The only thing is that the driver base of this program is smaller than that of Slim Driver (this will come in handy when updating drivers, it does not affect when creating backups).
Creating a backup copy of drivers - instructions for working in Slim Drivers
Important! Slim Drivers requires an Internet connection to work (if your Internet does not work before installing the drivers, then, for example, when you reinstall Windows when restoring the drivers, you may encounter problems - it will not be possible to install the Slim Drivers program to restore the drivers. This is such a vicious circle).
1. To create a backup in Slim Driver, you first need to set up a hard drive location where the copy will be saved. To do this, go to the Options section, select the Backup subsection, specify the location of the copy on your hard drive (it is advisable to choose a partition other than where you have Windows installed) and click the Save button.
3. Literally in a matter of minutes (on my laptop in 2-3 minutes) a copy of the drivers is created. The success report can be seen in the screenshot below.
Restoring drivers from a backup
After reinstalling Windows or unsuccessfully updating drivers - they can be easily restored from our copy.
1. To do this, go to the Options section, then to the Restore subsection, select the location on the hard drive where the copies are stored (see a little higher in the article, you need to select the folder where we created the copy), and click the Save button.
A backup copy of the drivers is necessary in order to save time after reinstalling Windows. When a fresh operating system is installed on the computer, you must immediately install all the drivers for the devices, otherwise something will not work correctly. Installing drivers takes a lot of time, and it will also take some time to find them.
In this article, you can download the Double Driver program, which will allow you to easily create backup drivers, and then quickly restore them. Among the advantages of the program, I saw the following:
- This is a portable program - no installation is required, it works right out of the box, you can run it from a USB flash drive.
- Very light and fast.
- Completely free, no limits.
- It allows you to create a copy of the drivers not only on the current system, but also on another one, if there are several Windows on the computer, including, notably, it can scan drivers on damaged systems if they cannot be loaded.
Of the shortcomings, only one is the program in English. But, as usual, thanks to my instructions, this will not be a big problem. I'll show you where to click.
After launching, the program interface will appear in front of you, in which first click on "Backups" in the top menu, and then "Scan current system" at the bottom.
You will instantly see a list of drivers found on your device. Check the boxes for the devices whose drivers you want to back up or check all at once, and then click on the button at the bottom of "Backup Now".
A window will appear in which you need to select the location to save the backup copy (“Destination” option), as well as the form in which the backup copy of the drivers should be saved (“Output” option, I give explanations in the order of the points, as in the screenshot below):
- structure folder;
- compressed archive in .zip format;
- self-extracting archive.
I recommend choosing the first option. Then click the "OK" button and the backup of the drivers will begin. The more drivers you have selected, the longer the copy process will take. Wait for it to complete.
If you save as a structured folder, then the driver backup will look like the screenshot below.
Before reinstalling Windows, do not forget to save the backup copy of the drivers and the distribution package of the Double Driver program in a safe place, for example, on a flash drive, a disk where Windows is not installed, or on another device.
Damaged Windows driver backup
As I mentioned above, Double Driver allows you to save drivers from Windows that cannot be loaded. To do this, boot into any other working system on this computer. Then follow all the instructions described above, only after clicking the "Backups" button in the top menu, instead of "Scan current system" click "Scan other system" at the bottom, and specify the path to Windows, with which you want to backup the drivers.
The rest of the process is the same as I described above.
How to restore drivers
To restore drivers that were previously saved, run the Double Driver program, click the "Restore" button in the top menu, and then "Locate backup" at the bottom.
A window will appear in which you need to select the location where the backup copy of the drivers was saved.
If you did not change the default save location when copying, then your backup will be in the "Default location" option. If the backup was saved elsewhere as an archive, then specify the path to it in the “Compressed (zipped) backup folder” option. If the backup was saved elsewhere as a folder, then specify it in the "Other location" option. Then click the "Ok" button. The screenshot shows the last option.
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 hardware that is no longer supported, or, for example, unique self-written drivers. That is why sometimes you should think about creating a backup copy (backup) of drivers.
As a possible solution, you can download and install one of the driver backup software. 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, you do not depend on programs. For example, some of these programs do not have portable versions and must be installed. Secondly, drivers break down not so often, so it's not a very expensive task to spend a little time on manual recovery. Thirdly, if something goes wrong, then you will always have a way out.
In Windows 7, all drivers are located in several directories located in the "%SystemRoot%\System32\" system directory. Two standard protected folders "DriverStore" and "drivers". And sometimes it happens that there is also a "DrvStore" directory. These directories must be fully 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 A: Of course, you don't have to copy all directories completely. If you are technically savvy enough, then you just need to copy only the necessary files.
- User Account Control in Windows 7 / XP / Vista
How to get a list of installed drivers on a computer? Technical Tips
