Never ceases to amaze me...

JRich8389 · Sep 4, 2011

I really like Driver Genius for when I format and re-install my OS. You can backup all those pesky drivers for the shortcut keys and things like that to an external and then reload the OS and toss 'em all back in.

Vehtemas · Sep 4, 2011

JRich8389 said:
I really like Driver Genius for when I format and re-install my OS. You can backup all those pesky drivers for the shortcut keys and things like that to an external and then reload the OS and toss 'em all back in.

How does that work for you? I have never tried those driver finders, mainly because of one such program that screwed up my computer 4 years ago (got a KILLER virus/trojan infection).

9to5cynic · Sep 4, 2011

I found a bat file on pcworld or some pc type publication that does drive backup and restore. I haven't actually tried it, but I did use it to back up to a disk.
Think it worked. Looked like it work. :|

JRich8389 · Sep 4, 2011

Vehtemas said:
How does that work for you? I have never tried those driver finders, mainly because of one such program that screwed up my computer 4 years ago (got a KILLER virus/trojan infection).

Its as simple as a GUI that says Backup Drivers and you pick a location and it copies them all there lol

It also searches like 20+ sites and auto downloads drivers as well. I haven't had any problems with it so far.

johnlgalt · Sep 5, 2011

Driver Max is another one, although they do get pesky trying to make you pay for it.

@9-5 - I'd be interested in that bat file - I'm old enough to have written my own bat files in the past, and I'd love to see how they went about it for modern OSs....

9to5cynic · Sep 5, 2011

johnlgalt said:
Driver Max is another one, although they do get pesky trying to make you pay for it.

@9-5 - I'd be interested in that bat file - I'm old enough to have written my own bat files in the past, and I'd love to see how they went about it for modern OSs....

I'll look for it, I'm sure I kept a copy somewhere ...

Looking at it, it doesn't look like it actually can restore anything, but still pretty cool. I'm all for bat files.

Code:

echo off
echo This driver backup batch file was developed by Lincoln Spector
echo for PC World. It will back up the folders containing your
echo hardware drivers to a folder called driverback inside My Documents.
pause
%homedrive%
cd "%homepath%\my documents"
md driverback
cd driverback
xcopy %windir%\help /y
xcopy %windir%\inf /r /y
xcopy %windir%\system /r /y
xcopy %windir%\system32 /r /y
xcopy %windir%\system32\drivers /r /y
cd ..
attrib -h driverback
echo The folders are backed up. You should now copy the contents of the
echo driverback folder to a CD.
pause
cls

Here's the code from the bat file. Faster doing a copy/paste than an actual upload

johnlgalt · Sep 5, 2011

lfmao - awesome. Now, I can take that batch file and using ISO Writer - command-line CD/DVD/BD/HDDVD image burning tool for Windows I can make the batch file so that it automatically copies that directory to a CD....

And improve upon it by having it figure out what the current OS is and if it is Vista+ then have it use RoboCopy instead of Xcopy....

I wonder, though, since it is only copying those files, what about drivers that don't actually get copied to those files (I'm sure there are some whack hardware out there that do that on purpose....)

9to5cynic · Sep 5, 2011

Good question. And it might not actually work, I didn't try it. I backed up the drivers and formatted that pc so fast windows never saw it coming.

the file looked sound to me though, but I don't have much batch file experience.

johnlgalt · Sep 5, 2011

I have plenty of it. The installation files, the .INF files used to store info for the drivers, along with other sundry files, are all there. But it's only picking from the windows subtree.

I'll check it out and maybe compare it with Driver Max and see if there is a difference or not...

Leonne · Sep 5, 2011

Seriously.
Last time I went shopping for crap, it came with a laptop.

*Zing!*

I hate crapware. Luckily the only laptop I have now is a Mac that comes with little crapware, and my Windows computer is a custom build PC so I don't have to deal with that.

JRich8389 · Sep 8, 2011

Another cool program I use a lot is Acronis Backup. Makes an exact image of your computer and puts it on an external HDD/Server/Filer...etc

Its ridiculously simple to use and "re-image" your machine if something goes wrong.

9to5cynic · Sep 8, 2011

There is also Clonezilla for imaging. I've used that in the past (well, I was going to, but then I realized I didn't have a hard drive big enough to match my current on :O )

Of course, you could always venture the path of dd

SUroot · Sep 9, 2011

johnlgalt said:
I have a Technet license - it includes 10 licenses of All the different flavors, (including differentiating the K/N flavors too) plus an unlimited activation of Windows 7 Enterprise.

Same thing with Vista, XP, Server 2008 r2, Server 2008, Server 2003,.....

office 2010, 2007, 2003, XP, ....

Publishers, Vision, Project and Project Server....

There's is so much on that thing for a single $250 payment every year - it pays for itself the first time you DL and install Win 7 on a machine. I originally bought it so that I got 10 new licenses instead of 5, and I claimed all of them before they changed their policy....

Yeah technet is great, especially for the self trainer. If / When my career picks up again after this damned recession - I will definitely be looking to re-invest.

9to5cynic · Sep 9, 2011

I've got a quick question for you technet guys... is that 10 licenses for each version of each OS? (Ie, ten for Pro, home, Vista and it's variants...) or Ten total plus the Unlimited Enterprise...?

Do they renew each year? I'm seriously considering this.

johnlgalt · Sep 10, 2011

It used to be 10 - last year they changed it to 5.

So, a new user has 5 licenses of Windows 7 Ultimate / Ultimate K (32 bit and 64 bit use same key), 5 licenses for Windows 7 Ultimate N / NK, 5 licenses of Windows 7 Professional / Professional K, 5 licenses for Windows 7 Professional N / NK, etc.

Same with Office - 5 licenses of Office 2010 Professional Plus, 5 licenses for Office 2010 standard, 5 licenses for Access 2010, Outlook 2010, Word 2010, Visio 2010, Publisher 2010, ....

And yes, it renews every year. The lowest membership has stipulations that you cannot be using the software for any real world (read: business) practices, but other than that it's all live.

There is so much that you get for ~$350 (and they usually offer discounts of up to $100 off / 25% off as well) that no matter how many years you buy it, it is almost always going to be costing you 10-20 time sless than actually buying the software at retail prices.

Never ceases to amaze me...

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