Is there a fast way of getting needed drivers when doing a reinstall?  

Hi,

Is there a fast way to get all the drivers for a a PC or laptop that I'm doing an OEM Win7 reinstall on? Like is there a subscription service or some resource to speed up the install of drivers not on the generic MS Windows 7 install disk.

For example say I reinstall on a Sony or Fujitsu laptop. These are great machines but they need many drivers not on the generic install disk and the original manufacturers disk might be lost. So I go through the process of fetching what drivers I need from the manufacturer's website - which takes time.

Is there a faster way? Is there a "trick" or service or library available with most of these more proprietary drivers that can let me do it in one or two "swoops"?

Thanks

If I'm doing a install/reinstall I save all the drivers I need to a thumb drive. I get them from the manufacturers (Sony, Toshiba, etc.) website.
The trick is to not delete them when you are done. I save them to a folder on my computer when I'm done with the install/reinstall should I need them again. I then remove them from the thumb drive.

Hi

To use OEM to re-install, there is something you need to take note.

Remove any hardwares that you had install after OEM.

OEM recovery disc is for to re-install as it come with, as it include all the drivers.

Also use the OEM first, and later then do the update the drivers.

Windows updates cannot be short-cut as some updates have to be done before others.

I did it this way when i do OEM re-install, without any issue.

Eric.

I've never used it myself, but Double Driver looks interesting. It supposedly backs up drivers from a working system in preparation for a clean reinstall. If you try it, maybe you could report back and let us know how well it does.

leegold said:

Hi,

Is there a fast way to get all the drivers for a a PC or laptop that I'm doing an OEM Win7 reinstall on? Like is there a subscription service or some resource to speed up the install of drivers not on the generic MS Windows 7 install disk.

For example say I reinstall on a Sony or Fujitsu laptop. These are great machines but they need many drivers not on the generic install disk and the original manufacturers disk might be lost. So I go through the process of fetching what drivers I need from the manufacturer's website - which takes time.

Is there a faster way? Is there a "trick" or service or library available with most of these more proprietary drivers that can let me do it in one or two "swoops"?

Thanks

I keep latest drivers on a usb stick, you only have to go get them once, then if you update the drivers on a working install, save the updated file on your USB. That way you always have the latest drivers ready.
I have also saved drivers i know to be stable on a DVD , including all the extra's

AddRAM said:

Windows update does a lot better job finding drivers today then it ever has in the past.

Windows Update is known to fetch outdated and even broken drivers for hardware. This is specially problematic on Windows 10 where updates aren't easy to disable and tends to break working systems with little chance of user intervention. Better? Maybe. Good, reliable? Far from it. It's difficult to propose it as a serious option. In addition, it relies entirely on internet access and offers zero backup value.

dg1261 said:

I've never used it myself, but Double Driver looks interesting. It supposedly backs up drivers from a working system in preparation for a clean reinstall. If you try it, maybe you could report back and let us know how well it does.

Software like this often claims way more that they actually can do. It's simply not possible to extract drivers from a working system without knowing how the driver was installed exactly. They aren't sure to work when this "backup" is then restored.

Alejandro85 said:

Software like this often claims way more that they actually can do. It's simply not possible to extract drivers from a working system without knowing how the driver was installed exactly.

Wow. Why would you make such a gross over-generalization and present it as fact?

You can look at each device in Device Manager and it will tell you not only what driver files it's using, but where they are on the disk. For many of those devices you should be able to copy those files and reinstall them when Windows is clean installed. Driver installation isn't a mystery, Microsoft standardized the usual method long ago. Sure, some devices may have originally used fancy installers to make it more user-friendly or to bundle in additional junkware or monitors or control panels, but those aren't the drivers, per se.

I had a spare hard disk laying around, so I tested Double Driver for myself. I had DD backup drivers from my existing installation, swapped in the blank hard disk, and installed Win7 from DVD. It left me with several devices with missing drivers and Microsoft's generic VGA graphics driver. I then restored from the DD backup.

So I'll answer my own question, "How well did it do?" Quite well, actually.

DD restored every missing driver except one, and even identified exactly which one it couldn't install: the "STMicroelectronics 3-Axis Digital Accelerometer". That kind of precise identification would make it a whole lot easier if I had to go search for that one remaining driver.

So it wasn't perfect, but it did remarkably well, and disproved your assertion that it's "simply not possible to extract drivers from a working system."

These snapshots show the drivers DD had backed up from the old installation, and Device Manager after the clean install, both before and after DD restored the drivers.