Copy Windows Drivers From One Machine to Another
Driver problems are a source of never-ending issues in the Windows world. Often you'll have a working driver on another machine, but don't have the installation cd anymore to install on the new computer.
The simplest way to handle this is a tool called DriverMax, which will allow you to backup and restore your drivers. More importantly, it will allow you to pick a particular driver that is installed on the system and export it into a folder for reinstallation later or elsewhere.
You can use this tool to export drivers from either Vista or XP, and you could even try and use some of your working XP drivers in Vista if you were forced to. (This won't always work)
Launch DriverMax after installation, and you'll be presented with this graphically pleasing screen where you can select the "Export drivers" option.
You'll have to hit the next button to get to the list of drivers. This should show you all drivers installed on your system.
You can select just the particular driver you are trying to transfer, or you can use Select all if you wanted to backup your entire driver list (useful).
Use the next button again and you'll be taken to a screen where you can choose how to backup the drivers. If you are trying to move the drivers between machines you should choose the option to export to a folder.
Use the next button again and everything is done. You'll be able to directly open the folder using the "Open extraction folder" button.
In here you should see the folders containing the actual driver files. This is what you'll want to copy to the other computer using a thumb drive.
On the other computer, you can choose to update the drivers for the problem device, and when you are prompted on how you want to search, just choose to "Browse my computer for driver software" and then pick the folder with your exported drivers.
These instructions are fairly generic, but I've found the basic principles to be very handy.
This is soo awesome! I have been looking for an inexpensive solution to fix driver problems for ages! Dang, this makes me want to send you flowers! Thanks soo much!
Wow. Well - it's the same Michael.
Thanks Geek.
I'll have to try this program. It could come in handy when I have to reinstall Windows on customers' computers and there are no drivers disks. Looks a lot better than going online and getting them all one at a time.
There is a program called Double driver that does all these work. It is also free, just google it.
DriverMax is THE BEST BAR NONE!!!
I have tested a lot of similar software, and DriverMAX rocks !!!!
This is a great innovation but what do you do when Windows XP stops recognising drivers and will not therefore install tham?
Now all we need is a program that does the same thing only it exports windows drivers so you can use them on Linux. Because anyone who has used Linux knows what a pain compatibility is.
I cannot seem to get the free registration code for Driver Max. The page never loads. I used the program under trial and it is an awesome software!
I tried today and got it, no problem. It must have been a website problem yesterday. It is some great free software!
I seem to have lost my D drive…I've done all the checks as suggested on the hp site and to no avail. Any recommendations?
I have 4 hard drives, the first has XP on it, but isn't bootable. my 2nd hard drive has a messed up version of vista on it and isn't bootable. my 3rd drive has ubuntu, which i'm currently on. I'm trying to get XP on the fourth, and I got it installed alright, but I need the drivers, and I don't want to search again. How do I get the drivers from my first HD (the one with non-bootable XP) onto my new HD? I tried copying the system32/drivers folder to my new HD, but it didn't work, even if I tell the driver updater to search that folder, it doesn't let me - it says there are no drivers in it.
will vista drivers work on an xp?