Driver Backup... why should you do a driver backup?

You should always do a driver backup because it can keep all of your drivers in one place. If you use a compression tool like WinRAR or 7-Zip, you can store all your drivers in a really small package.

Just think if you installed Windows now, how many different CD's would you need to put in the CD tray and mess around installing the drivers from the CD, then restarting windows... you end up sat there rebooting windows all day long!

Thats why you should do a regular driver backup - by doing this and storing those drivers on say, a USB stick, you can then always rest assured that if you need to install Windows again, or you are the sort of person that frequently installs Windows just because it is nice and fast when it is first installed, having a driver backup of your driver "set" could save hours.

I say "set" meaning that your devices change. It is no use making a driver backup and then realizing that since that last driver backup you have put in a new graphics card - in this case, if you restore those old drivers it will not work. Sometimes the big guys like nVidia might cover you for this, I mean a driver backup containing your 7600GT drivers might work when restored to a 8800GTS card... the driver vendor puts a vast amount of coverage for probably hundreds of different device models and names, in the same core driver package.

Be warned that with things like sound drivers and chipset drivers, you absolutely must use the proper driver. Luckily for most, our devices don't change much in our computer. For most people, they just go and buy a whole new computer system and guess what? Yes, they spend all day downloading and installing drivers.

As time goes on, Windows might install a driver that causes the operating system to not boot anymore. To fix that, just reboot and tap the F8 key to boot into safe mode, say yes to the dialog box that pops up, then in safe mode open up Device Manager (type devmgmt.msc in the run box) and there you can properly uninstall the driver, after that, reboot. In some cases like with Ethernet LAN network cards, it might help to fully remove the device from Device Manager, don't worry... Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 will all re-detect the device on the next reboot, from there, you can install the old/proper/safe driver.

How do you know which driver is the latest driver?

Well, you could spend hours going from website to website searching for a driver, some I have dealt with are unbelievable in terms of how long it takes you to dig out the correct driver download link. First problem is finding the correct driver, second problem is finding the download link and the third problem is the billions of model numbers there are, plus you probably don't just know all the long model/serial numbers of all your devices off the top of your head, so it becomes hours of work, unless you use a driver update software - if you use a driver update software, you can just watch a 3 second long progress bar that does what would have taken you hours.

Driver update software - what is that?

Driver update software will first of all update its own driver database, this ensures the latest drivers are found, next, it will check your entire PC and all of its devices - even ones veteran computer geeks did not know they needed drivers for! Then the software scans for drivers on the internet and gives you a direct download of the file, usually a zip file.

What you end up with is the same bunch of driver setup exe and zip files you would have had to have spent hours trawling through brand names and model numbers to find.

Whether you work with new Windows installations a lot, or you just install Windows a lot as a user to make sure you do not have a virus, finding system divers this fast means you get the system up and running a lot faster.

Driver Robot

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