Quick selection guide (download free Windows driver backup and recovery program). How to save all drivers Windows 7 driver backup program

A driver backup is necessary to save time after reinstalling Windows. When a fresh operating system is installed on your computer, you must immediately install all drivers for the devices, otherwise something will not work correctly. Installing drivers takes a lot of time, and searching for them will also take up some of the time.

In this article, you can download the Double Driver program, which will allow you to easily create backup drivers and then quickly restore them. Among the advantages of the program I saw the following:

  • This is a portable program - no installation required, it works right out of the box, you can run it from a flash drive.
  • Very light and fast.
  • Completely free, without restrictions.
  • Allows you to create a copy of drivers not only on the current system, but also on another if there are several Windows on the computer, including, notably, it can scan drivers on damaged systems if they cannot be loaded.

There is only one drawback - the program is in English. But, as usual, thanks to my instructions, this will not be a big problem. I'll show you where to click.

After launch, the program interface will appear in front of you, in which first click on “Backups” in the top menu, and then “Scan current system” at the bottom.

You will instantly see a list of drivers found on your device. Check the boxes of the devices whose driver backups are required, or check all of them at once, and then click the “Backup Now” button at the bottom.

A window will appear in which you need to select the location to save the backup copy (the “Destination” option), as well as the form in which the driver backup should be saved (the “Output” option, I will give explanations in order of points, as in the screenshot below):

  • structural folder;
  • compressed archive in .zip format;
  • self-extracting archive.

I recommend choosing the first option. Then click the “Ok” button and the driver backup will begin. The more drivers have been selected, the longer the copying process will take. Wait for it to complete.

If you save as a structured folder, the driver backup will look like the screenshot below.

Before reinstalling Windows, be sure to save a backup copy of the drivers and the Double Driver program distribution in a safe place, for example, on a flash drive, a disk on which Windows is not installed, or on another device.

Backup of drivers for damaged Windows

As I said above, Double Driver allows you to save drivers from Windows that cannot boot. To do this, boot into any other working system on this computer. Then follow all the instructions described above, only after clicking the “Backups” button in the top menu, instead of “Scan current system” click “Scan other system” at the bottom, and specify the path to Windows from which you want to backup the drivers.

The rest of the process is the same as I described above.

How to restore drivers

To restore drivers that were previously saved, run the Double Driver program, click the “Restore” button in the top menu, and then “Locate backup” at the bottom.

A window will appear in which you need to select the location where the driver backup was saved.

If you did not change the default save location when copying, then your backup will be in the “Default location” option. If the backup was saved elsewhere as an archive, then specify the path to it in the “Compressed (zipped) backup folder” option. If the backup was saved in another location as a folder, then point to it in the “Other location” option. Then click the "Ok" button. The screenshot shows the last option.

Many users constantly reinstall the Windows operating system on their PC. This is usually due to the fact that the user is not satisfied with the performance of Windows. Often on forums you can repeatedly come across questions about exporting all settings or personal data. To put it simply, before installing a new OS, users want to save all the important parameters on their system and transfer them to the new one. This begs the question of how to save drivers when reinstalling Windows.

There are many programs for this that solve these problems. The most unpleasant thing is that when we see the “welcome” screen when we first start the system, we understand that another task awaits us: installing all the drivers, which may have been lost for a long time.

Note: I recommend saving all drivers immediately after reinstalling Windows. That is, when you installed Windows, you immediately need to make sure that you save all the drivers in a separate folder, for example, on drive D and write “Do not touch.” The next time you install the system, you will already have all the drivers complete.

Instructions for backing up drivers in the Windows operating system

Download the DriverMax program, you can get it from the official website by clicking on the following link.

Note: This program is shareware. After 30 days, the program will stop working. To prevent this, you need to register on the official website. For us, such a need does not matter to anyone, since we only need to use it once.

When installing the program, you must agree to the license agreement. Place a check mark next to it, as shown in the figure, and click the “Next” button.

We select the folder on the hard drive where we want to install the program, leave it as it is, by default. Click “Next”.

The next window prompts us to enter the name of the program. Leave it as default and click “Next”.

In this window, the checkbox next to “Great a desktop icon” should be by default. We leave it, otherwise we won’t see the shortcut on the desktop. Click “Next”.

In the next window, click on the “Install” button. Nothing complicated, the usual process of installing any program or game, if you have already decided to learn how to save the drivers and are going to reinstall Windows, then you are undoubtedly an experienced user and therefore you should not have any problems.

Note: During the installation of the program, a message should appear indicating that drivers will be indexed, which is necessary when installing the program for the first time. Click "OK". The mouse cursor will start blinking. Don't worry, this is just the program starting to carry out the necessary procedures for its further operation.

See screenshots below.

Once the installation of the program is complete, click “Finish”.

Working with the DriverMax program: saving drivers

Launch the DriverMax program shortcut on the desktop. Actually this is our main program window. Depending on the version, the program interface may vary, but the essence of working with the program remains the same.

In the program window, find the second category “ Driverbackupandrestore", click on it. From the list provided we are interested in “ Backup drivers" Let's go through it.

By clicking on the “Next” button, immediately after the greeting, the program will search for installed drivers. We wait until the “Listing devices” message disappears from the screen and a list of drivers appears. See the picture below.

After the program has detected all the installed drivers on your computer, click on the “Select all” button, that is, we select all the drivers that we want to save, or we put a checkmark next to each driver, that is, we make a selection. Have you selected all the necessary drivers? Then click “Next”.

The matter remains small; we have almost reached the end of this procedure. Our next step is to save the drivers. By default, the program suggests saving drivers in the “My Documents” folder. I strongly recommend not saving them there, since the “My Documents” folder is a system folder. After reinstalling Windows, you will lose your drivers and your work will be in vain. Save the drivers to another disk partition or storage medium (flash drive, etc.). See the picture below.

This is what the copying process looks like:

I think everyone will understand that the last step is a window with a message about successful copying, click the “Close” button.

Now we can go to our folder and make sure that our drivers have been saved in full. Let's see.

Installing drivers through the program

And so, we have the drivers. We have learned to save drivers, which means that after reinstalling Windows, we will not be upset if we are convinced that there is no sound or other non-working component in our system. How can we install drivers now?

We can install the drivers that we saved in two ways. The first way to install drivers is directly with the DriverMax program. If you want to install drivers through the DriverMax program, then go to the program and select the “Restore drivers from backup” item.

Next, we tell the program the folder with our drivers and wait. Using this method is extremely inconvenient, since you need to install this program on your computer. A good way for beginners, but you can do it a little more correctly.

The second method of installing drivers does not require any specialized programs, since this function is completely standard and, as I already said, quite reliable.

Right-click on the “My Computer” icon - “Properties” and select “Device Manager” from the context menu. If you have a device that requires a driver or update, it will appear yellow. Select it and click “Update Driver”.

A window will appear before our eyes in which we must select “Search for drivers on this computer.” Next, the wizard will ask you where to install. At this moment, indicate the drivers that were saved.

If you may be asked “Install the driver anyway” or not install. Choose install.

For more information about installing drivers, read: "". OK it's all over Now. The instructions “How to save drivers when reinstalling Windows” have come to their final completion. I wish you fewer problems with drivers.

Few people think that someday their computer will crash and they will have to reinstall the entire system. The reinstallation itself no longer causes such problems as before, but installing the driver can be a stumbling block, especially if the driver disk is lost and the Internet does not work for the same reason that there is no network card driver. In this case, a driver backup would be very helpful.

There are many ways to create such backups, but we are interested in the simplest and free one.

Therefore, we will use the free version of the program DriverMax. Go to the official website of the DriverMax program and click on the big green button.

We start the installation of the program by double-clicking with the left mouse button on its icon.

In the first window, click on the button “ Launch».

A window with an installation scale will appear and after a few seconds the program itself will open.

We are only interested in driver backup, so we will not be distracted by its other functions, but will immediately go to the “ tab Backup».

Set the switch to the line “ Create a driver backup archive" and below click the button " Further».

If you are not a completely confident computer user, then first it is better to create a system restore point, and only then start archiving drivers. It never hurts to be on the safe side. It does not take a lot of time. Literally in a minute you will have a system restore point created, which in case of any problems can easily return everything to normal.

After creating a system restore point, first go to some other tab, and then return to the “Backup” tab again, and set the switch to the “Create a driver backup archive” entry.

In the next window, at the very bottom, check the box to select all our drivers, and click the “ Backup».

The process of copying your drivers will begin. Be patient and wait.

After the program has finished creating a copy of your drivers, you need to go to the folder using the link at the bottom of the window

Useful advice for storing your data on your computer

Under no circumstances should you leave the driver archive only in this folder, because... it is created on the disk with the operating system. And if at one point your system does not start and you have to reinstall it, then you may lose this archive.

Also store the program installation file there, because after reinstalling the system you most likely will not have access to the Internet.

This is why I don't store all my files on the same drive as the operating system.

For this purpose, I have 5 hard drives on my computer and some of them are divided into partitions. Therefore, I am not afraid that my system may “fly”. I have a copy of the operating system on a separate disk and a backup copy of it.

I advise you not to wait for the system to tell you to live long, and take care of this in advance. Then, in case of unforeseen situations, you can quickly and painlessly restore everything.

How to restore drivers on a new operating system

It's as simple as creating a driver archive. Install the DriverMax program on the new OS and select the “ Recovery" There, go to “Restore from a previously created backup” and click the “Next” button.

In the next window, click the button “ Download».

And specify the path to the driver archive and click the “ Open»

In the next window, put a checkmark at the very bottom and click the “ Restore».

And in a few minutes all drivers will be installed.

A small driver backup program that does not require installation. It allows you to find all the drivers installed on your PC and save them for later restoration after reinstalling the system. Its main feature is the ability to save drivers not only for a running system, but also for an inactive or even inoperable one!

Reinstalling the system is a simple matter, but quite troublesome. Firstly, you need to copy all the necessary information (documents, photos, music, etc.) to backup media in advance.

Then you should take care not to forget the bookmarks and passwords saved in your browsers. You may also need to save the necessary configuration files for various applications...

And it often happens that everything seems to be saved, the system has already been reinstalled, but it turns out that the driver disk for your PC or laptop has disappeared somewhere! Has this ever happened to you?

If you have access to the Internet, then you can somehow get out of this situation (although you will spend a lot of time downloading new drivers). And if not? Then you will have to look for the necessary disks from friends or somewhere else :).

But it turns out that all these troubles can be avoided quite easily by making backup of installed drivers! And an excellent free program will help us with this. Double Driver.

Comparison with a paid analogue

Double Driver does not have rich functionality, but it copes with its main task with a bang - it saves installed drivers and helps to restore them on a new system. The paid My Drivers utility has similar capabilities:

From the comparison it is clear that the paid application has slightly more features than Double Driver, but all of them (with the exception, of course, of the ability to download drivers from the Internet) are practically useless. But our free program also has its trump cards.

Firstly, Double Driver can search for drivers even on an inactive system (can be a big help when working with LiveCD)!

And secondly, it allows you to save logs of your work and lists of detected drivers. This can help advanced users find the drivers they need online.

Getting started with the program

Double Driver does not require installation, so to start working with the program, simply unzip the folder with it to your hard drive and run the file dd.exe:

The program interface is in English, but quite simple, so it does not require translation for the most part. The application window consists of two parts: a toolbar with functional buttons and a work area.

When loading, we find ourselves in the “Home” section, where we can see the program’s event log, save it to a text file or print it on a printer. In this section, the “Select” button is inactive, since there is nothing to choose here :).

Backing up your drivers

To view the list of installed drivers and back them up, we need to click the second button on the toolbar - “Backup”:

In order to get a list of drivers, you need to click the “Scan Current System” button.

However, as I mentioned above, Double Driver can also search for drivers in inactive system directories. To do this, use the “Scan Other System” button. This function will be useful if you have several operating systems on your hard drive (for example, XP and 7).

You just need to specify the folder with the desired OS and scan it without having to download it!

By default, the list will highlight all drivers that are not included with Windows (although all standard drivers are present!). Using the “Select” button, you can quickly select all drivers, deselect them, or invert the selection (that is, select all drivers from Microsoft).

Naturally, you can also select the necessary drivers manually using the checkboxes to the left of the name.

So, using the “Select” button (the “None” item), we remove all selections, mark only the item we need, and then press the “Backup Now” button. The following window will appear in front of us:

Here we can select the folder to save the driver (section “Destination”) and the format of saving itself (section “Output”). As for the latter, we can save the drivers:

  1. In the format of structured folders that will be used by the program for recovery;
  2. In zip archive format, which can also be used for recovery using Double Driver;
  3. In an executable file format that can be used separately from the program as a standalone installer.

Select the desired saving format (I chose the first one) and click the “Ok” button. After some time, the backup copy will be ready!

Driver recovery

For the purity of the experiment, I completely removed the drivers of the tested network card from the system and now I will try to restore them using Double Driver.

To switch to driver recovery mode, you need to click the third button on the toolbar - “Restore”:

Click the “Locate Backup” button and in the window that opens, select the option for the location of our driver (or drivers, if you copied several at once). There are also three recovery options available here:

  1. Restoring from the default folder (My Documents) will suit you if you did not change the backup location when saving the backup copy (section “Destination”);
  2. You will need to select Restore from archive if you selected the second option (archiving) when creating a backup copy;
  3. We will need to restore from the specified folder (I used it) if we changed the default backup storage folder.

If you have chosen the correct location, you will see a list of drivers available for installation:

We mark the items we need and click the “Restore Now” button. The standard Device Driver Installation Wizard will launch, which will automatically configure the system properly and prepare our hardware component for operation:

After completing the installation of the driver backup, the system successfully detected my network card and I was able to restore all my settings to it without much effort. The test showed that Double Driver works quite correctly, which is what we need :).

Additional features

In fact, there are no special additional features in Double Driver. The only thing the program can do beyond the functionality described above is save logs of its work and lists of found drivers.

Such information can be useful for advanced users or system administrators, as it allows them to immediately see all components installed on the system.

To use this function, you just need to click the “Save” button on the tab with the required data. So, in the “Home” tab we can save the Double Driver operation log, in “Backup” - a list of installed drivers, and in “Restore” - a list of reserved ones:

For example, in the screenshot above we can see a fragment of the saved list of installed drivers. In it, in addition to, of course, the name of the device, we can see the date of the last driver update, its version, class and identifiers (ven and dev), with which you can find all the software for the selected device!

Advantages and disadvantages of the program

  • no installation required;
  • the ability to select any drivers (including system ones) for backup;
  • backup of drivers from an inactive system;
  • creating backup copies of drivers with automatic installation;
  • saving a list of installed drivers to a text document.
  • It is not possible to download drivers from the Internet.

conclusions

Double Driver is a simple workhorse for backing up installed drivers. However, this “horse” can sometimes help even in situations when other backup “monsters” are powerless.

For example, I have not yet come across a program that would be able to save all the drivers from an already “fallen” system. And Double Driver, thanks to its portability and the “Scan Other System” function, copes with this task with a bang!

P.S. Permission is granted to freely copy and quote this article, provided that an open active link to the source is indicated and the authorship of Ruslan Tertyshny is preserved.

How to do it quickly copy of drivers for further recovery. Usually creation driver backup, is done when reinstalling Windows, or when copying drivers for the same hardware.

[Backup Windows Xp Drivers] [Backup Windows 7, 8, 10 Drivers]

Copy of Windows Xp drivers

Backup of drivers in the Windows Xp operating system, we will do it using the Double driver program. Therefore, first of all we need to download Double driver [Download Double driver]
After you have downloaded, extract everything from the archive and run the file dd.exe

Select an item Backup


Click Scan Current System for scanning drivers on your system


Now let's choose those drivers which we need for backup copy. To do this, check the boxes. If you want to make a backup of all drivers, then go to Select All


All you have to do is press the magic button Backupnow and choose where exactly we will save our drivers (For example, drive D:)


Now all you have to do is wait 2-7 minutes, after which a success message will pop up. creating a driver backup

If we look at the D: drive, we will see that the name of the driver folder is the name of our motherboard with today's date and time

Restoring drivers from a Windows Xp backup

In order to restore drivers from backup copy, open dd.exe

Select an item Restore


Click LocateBackup-> select the item Otherlocation and indicate the path to our drivers -> OK


Click Restore Now –> OK-> We wait 5-7 minutes until the recovery is successful, reboot the computer and that’s it! Recovery drivers from backup copy successfully completed!

Copy of Windows 7, 8.1, 10 drivers

For creating driver backup we need the Driver Magician Lite program - you can download it
After you have downloaded the program, unzip it and run it using Driver Magician Lite administrator

Now check the boxes for those drivers that you want to backup. If you are afraid of missing something, you can mark everything. I usually mark it either by date (the older the better, since some drivers are installed with Windows itself) or by the color red. After you have marked them (if you want to mark them all, click Select All), click Start Backup and specify the location where to save them)



Now wait 5-15 minutes while it is created driver backup
After the message Driver backup finishes successfully we can close the program

How to restore drivers in Windows 7, 8, 9

So, on the computer where you need to restore the drivers, press Winkey + R and enter devmgmt.msc - Ok.




The drivers that need to be installed will be located in the subsection Other devices. Also look at the video adapter. If it says “Standard video adapter” then it also needs to be installed or updated (from a backup copy of the driver). In the picture, drivers that were automatically installed are marked in green and drivers that are not are marked in red.



In order to restore the drivers, right-click on the desired device -> Select “Update drivers” - Search for drivers on this computer - Browse - Specify the folder where we backed up the drivers, then click Ok and Next. After some time, the system will install the selected driver automatically. You will need to do this with each unknown device.





Do this procedure for each device in the other devices list!

You can also read other articles on the topic "Windows 8.1, 7, XP"

 

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