How do I go about backing up/saving installed device drivers in Windows 2000/XP?

Question

I want to reinstall Windows 2000 on a machine which has some very obscure drivers. I don't much fancy having to hunt round for them (that's if I'm able to locate them at all).

Is it possible to save or backup already installed drivers? If so, how do I do this manually? Or is there some software available to do this for me? How do I then go about installing these 'saved' drivers?

(I'd prefer cheap/free software unless it's really worthwhile.)

Answer 1

Yes, it´s possible. There are some different programs to do it. For example: http://www.sharewareplaza.com/Driver-Magician-Lite-download%5F35071.html

Answer 2

another one:

DriverMax 4.3

Answer 3

I needed to do the very same thing you talk about, and I went with:

DriverBackup!

Info:

Fast and user-friendly free tool for drivers's backup, restoration and removal with command line options, automatic restoration from CD\DVD and path formatting. DriverBackup! includes also an interactive command line builder.

Screenshot:

My reasons for choosing that one:

• All the other alternatives I know of, are either shareware, or freeware, and I don't like to trust drivers (and the headache it'll cause me to search for them) on closed source code.
• The program gives you 2 options: 1> It backups up to a file that only it will recognize for later restoration 2> (my option) It saves the files you need for when windows shows the "New Hardware Found" dialog (this way the program may break, never work again or .... and you're safe)

That's my 2 cents