Computer Hope
Hardware => Drivers => Topic started by: dhaltom on August 30, 2007, 09:37:20 PM
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Here's my situation: I am getting ready to wipe my hard drives clean and do a reinstall of everything, my OS, my programs, everything. I have all the disks for my hardware and everything, so I do have the drivers available, but I was hoping to shave some time off and try and get all the drivers all together in one place. Anyone know of anything capable of that? Or better yet is there a folder where all my current drivers are stored?
Also, I was wondering if anyone was aware of any programs that would be able to identify what hardware you have installed and go get all the drivers for you automatically.
Thanks in advance for any help anyone is able to offer.
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Everest Home will show you all the components of your machine.
However 9 times out of 10 the best drivers are the ones that shipped with the machine.
The cleanest install method is :
Install OS (XP Win2K etc)
Install MBoard drivers.
Install video drivers
Install NIC card drivers.
Install sound drivers ( if not onboard sound ).
Note: No one really does this much anymore but i re-boot in between each install...
At this point install all your protection apps.
Before connecting to the web restart the machine and make sure Windows firewall is enabled.
Re-boot go online and grab all the Windows updates.
After that grab all available updates for your protection apps.
Shut down, disconnect from the web and run all your protection apps in safemode.
When done with this it's the perfect time to create an image of your brand new install using Ghost or Acronis.
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And if you decide you do want to try Everest ( it is free ), here's a link to save you having to find it:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html