This is a beta Answer Line tip, eventually to be published. Think of it as an unfinished product, and I'm hoping that your comments will improve it.

Please understand that I usually have to generalize readers' questions. I want my answers to be useful to as many PC World readers as possible.

Thank you,

Lincoln

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How Do I Back Up My Drivers?

Gerald Thompson, CITY TK

First, you should know that there are no guarantees. I’ve
yet to find a technique that always gets every file needed by every driver. But
I can recommend two approaches, either of which will get the vast majority and
quite likely all of them. As an extra precaution, you might use both.

The first is driverback.bat, a batch file I wrote when I
last answered this question in 2005. This makes for an extremely easy backup
and a reasonably easy restore, although it backs up far more files than you’re
likely to need. Another problem: It doesn’t work in Vista--one
more reason why I’m giving an alternative solution.

You can download driverback.bat from http://find.pcworld.com/49366. (If
that URL brings you to a web page of text rather than a file download dialog
box, copy and paste the text into Notepad and save it as driverback.bat.) Running the batch file copies a great many files
to a folder inside My Documents called driverback. Copy this folder to an external
drive or burn it to CD for safe keeping.

To restore your drivers to a fresh XP installation, connect
or insert the media containing your driverback backup. Select Start**Run, type sysdm.cpl, and press <Enter>.
Click the Hardware tab, then the Device Manager button.

Repeat the following steps for each item listed that
displays a yellow question mark:

1. Right-click
   the item and select Update Driver.
2. In the
   resulting Hardware Update Wizard, select Install from a list or specific location (Advanced) and click Next.
3. Check Include this location in the search and
   point it to your driverback folder. Click Next.
4. If the
   installation pauses because it can’t find a file, point it to your driverback
   folder.

If you’re using Vista,
don’t trust my admittedly crude batch file, or just want two backups, consider
Innovative Solution’s free DriverMax (http://www.innovative-sol.com/drivermax/).
(Free, yes, but you still must register it if you wish to keep using it.)

Once installed and registered, it backs up and restores
drivers with almost no fuss.