Netbook, Drivers and re-installing windows

[segmentumobscurus]

Hey all,

I know that this isnt really a dedicated tech forum but I'd rather ask in here and hope to get an answer than head off to sign up somewhere else.

I'm soon going to be upgrading my current netbook to a laptop and want to wipe/reinstall windows on my netbook (dell inspiron 1012). The wipe and reinstall I'm confident with (did it recently on a toshiba NB500 from a usb copy of windows - had no problems at all other than trying to find drivers afterwards).

What I'm curios about is whether it is possible to copy the drivers from the netbook before I wipe the machine and then copy them back into place after the install? If it is possible what folders/files/locations should I be copying to do so?

Thanks in advance.

Dan

[Grimmeth]

It's theoretically possible but to be honest I wouldn't bother trying to do it.
Youre best bet is to just pop to the Del website and make sure all the drivers are available from there, stick them onto a memory stick (or some other media) and then reinstall away.

If you really want to do the hard way it will depend what version of windows you're running, on XP they're likely to be in C:\Windows\System 32. But they might not all be (some device drivers are written to install to other areas) and that might not be the entirety of the software needed to install the device (if there are any other bits of and pieces instaled with the driver - this is common on printers for example).

[philbrad2]

I wouldn't bother. I Dell offers very good drivers download service. Go to Dell. Com and look for support and drivers. Download the drivers for your net book from there and save on something like a usb driver.

If using Dell restore cd to reapply the operating system it should reinstall the drivers too.


PhilB

[segmentumobscurus]

It's theoretically possible but to be honest I wouldn't bother trying to do it.
Youre best bet is to just pop to the Del website and make sure all the drivers are available from there, stick them onto a memory stick (or some other media) and then reinstall away.

I hadn't even considered going to the dell site to download the drivers- the amount of hassle I experienced tring to get hold of the drivers for the Toshiba was enough to make me discount it, but as philbrad2 mentions the dell site should be a better experience.

I wouldn't bother. I Dell offers very good drivers download service. Go to Dell. Com and look for support and drivers. Download the drivers for your net book from there and save on something like a usb driver.

If using Dell restore cd to reapply the operating system it should reinstall the drivers too.


PhilB

You sir are a genius! I've had that bloody CD clogging up my laptop bag (along with a copy of microsoft works that appears to be in shrinkwrap still !?!) for the past 2 years and its finally going to see some use! Looks like that is the perfect answer to my problems as long as I can either copy the cd to a usb (which I'm sure I've got software for somewhere) or as long as my portable dvd drive meshes correctly after the re-install (the internal dvd drive to a previous laptop in an external housing).

Thanks Philbrad2 for such a perfect suggestion!

[Grimmeth]

Thanks Philbrad2 for such a perfect suggestion!

It may not be as perfect as you'd hoped.

The problem with Dell (and many other laptop manufacturers) is that they load these restore disks with a load of junk software on them (the same stuff you get when you first buy the system) - if you've no probem with installing that then this will be the easiest option, but it can be a pain to remove it all (and it'll never work quite as well as a clean install)

A completely fresh windows install will be much cleaner, but will take more time. It realy depends what you're hoping to achieve by wiping it (why are you formatting it all and starting again, out of interest?)
If this is something you do regularly you might find it useful to set the machine up with Windows and its drivers etc and then take an image of it - depends how techy you are but it's not a massively complex procedure - there's a few examples of free software that can do it here:
http://www.techsupportalert.com/best...ng-program.htm

[PointBlank]

Not that ther's anything wrong with Philbrad's suggestion, but it's generally better to re-download the drivers from the site to make sure you get the most up-to-date versions. Generally, all you have to do is type in the service tag printed on the bottom of your netbook. That or use the diagnostic tool in the downloads section, but I've had mixed results with it.

[segmentumobscurus]

It may not be as perfect as you'd hoped.

The problem with Dell (and many other laptop manufacturers) is that they load these restore disks with a load of junk software on them (the same stuff you get when you first buy the system) - if you've no probem with installing that then this will be the easiest option, but it can be a pain to remove it all (and it'll never work quite as well as a clean install)

A completely fresh windows install will be much cleaner, but will take more time. It realy depends what you're hoping to achieve by wiping it (why are you formatting it all and starting again, out of interest?)
If this is something you do regularly you might find it useful to set the machine up with Windows and its drivers etc and then take an image of it - depends how techy you are but it's not a massively complex procedure - there's a few examples of free software that can do it here:
http://www.techsupportalert.com/best...ng-program.htm

Hey Grimmeth,

I'm not to bothered about the associated junk that comes installed on the machine - I managed to remove it when I purchased it so should be able to do so again. I'm going to be wiping and re-installing so I can bring the machine back up to something I consider useable. I've had it for 2 years and its now become so clogged and slow (for example my 3 Connect usb dongle software used to load up the three.com homepage automatically within 10 seconds of connecting - now it takes closer to 2 minutes!) that rather than spend hours and hours removing software and cleaning up the drive its going to be easier to copy what I need for my new machine and then just re-install. Its actually going to my partner for work purposes once its been done so she has something to use that isn't overly important and can be lost/damaged and not be the end of the world.

I might spend a little time over the next few days seeing how simple it would be to download the up to date drivers but to be honest I'm not bothered by how fresh they are and I can always update them myself via my machine.

Thanks again

Dan

[Sylass]

If you really want to you could use "Double Driver" (http://boozet.org/dd.htm) to extract the drivers from your current machine.
Once Windows is installaed again you should be able to get all the devices to work again using the extracted drivers.

(I have a Dell laptop myself and simply used the Dell driver download page to get the drivers I needed when reinstalling the OS.)