How does one save drivers before a reformat in XP?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Gary Helfert
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G

Gary Helfert

I'd like to do a reformat & reinstall of my OS but the time it would take to
lookup & download all the required drivers is making me hesitant.
Windows does not seem to have a dedicated directory for drivers.
1) Is there a simple way to copy all existing drivers to storage before
doing a reformat?
2) How likely is it that the drivers themselves may be infected with
malware?
 
Gary Helfert said:
I'd like to do a reformat & reinstall of my OS but the time it would take to
lookup & download all the required drivers is making me hesitant.
Windows does not seem to have a dedicated directory for drivers.
1) Is there a simple way to copy all existing drivers to storage before
doing a reformat?
Click to expand...

Simple? no. Some drivers seem to only install when you use the vendors
"setup" or "install" program. Others are nice enough to let you copy them
and use the add new hardware wizard where you can browse to the folder you
copied them to. But ...
2) How likely is it that the drivers themselves may be infected with
malware?
Click to expand...

If you are formatting because of an infection, I wouldn't save the drivers.
You just can't trust anything with the kind of malware running around out
there.

I would recommend you find original disk for the network card driver (or the
modem driver) for your machine and if you dont have the rest, don't worry
too much for now. Do the format and install. Use what drivers you still have
(original disks) and what drivers you don't have you can download since
you'll have saved your network/modem driver. Make sure you activate whatever
protection you have (AV, Firewall) so you don't get re-infected.

Good Luck,
-Dr.X
 
Ahhhh reformat.... "the cause and solution to all life's problems" Good
luck:)

--


Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful,
committed people can change the world
INDEED, it's the only thing that ever has...) o (...
 
Gary said:
I'd like to do a reformat & reinstall of my OS but the time it would take to
lookup & download all the required drivers is making me hesitant.
Windows does not seem to have a dedicated directory for drivers.
1) Is there a simple way to copy all existing drivers to storage before
doing a reformat?
2) How likely is it that the drivers themselves may be infected with
malware?
Click to expand...
You should try to fix whatever your problem is.A format is not going to
do much if you are going to just screw it up again.An informed user is
the best defense. Lets try to solve your problem.
-max

--
Keeping Windows Clean: http://www.geocities.com/maxpro4u/madmax.html
Virus Cleaning+Fixes: http://www.geocities.com/maxpro4u/TechPros
Change nomail.afraid.org to neo.rr.com so you can reply by e-mail
(nomail.afraid.org has been set up specifically for
use in Usenet. Feel free to use it yourself.)
 
I know where the infections came from. I inherited a used computer which had
been running without firewall protection and expired AV subscription. I
wouldn't be surprised if there are hundreds of malware programs in there.
Its unfortunate windows does not set up a dedicated directory to hold just
the drivers. A reformat will take a lot less time to fix then patching one
virus at a time.
 
Well, you don't "patch one virus at a time" but what you say is true.
It's just that you're talking to a group of purists that believe it
should be fixed, not just nuked and rebuilt. But you are right,
rebuilding it will take a lot less time than noodling with it and then
it still may not work.

But, if you've got more than one pc, it might be nice, as another
person suggested, to TRY to fix it. Current AV, Spybot, HiJackThis...
maybe you can salvage it and say you fixed it. As long as you have
your NIC drivers (hopefully you're not on dial-up), you'll be o.k.
I'm assuming by an expired AV the computer's probably a couple years
old. If you're installing XP, it usually does a pretty good job of
recognizing hardware. Video drivers, not always... Good luck
 
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