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This is a beta Answer Line tip, eventually to be published. Think of it as an unfinished product, and I'm hoping that your comments will improve it.

Please understand that I usually have to generalize readers' questions. I want my answers to be useful to as many PC World readers as possible.

Thank you,

Lincoln

h2. How Do I Back Up My Drivers?

Gerald Thompson, CITY TK

First, you should know that there are no guarantees. I’ve yet to find a technique that always gets every file needed by every driver. But I can recommend two approaches, either of which will get the vast majority and quite likely all of them. As an extra precaution, you might use both.

The first is driverback.bat, a batch file I wrote when I last answered this question in 2005. This makes for an extremely easy backup and a reasonably easy restore, although it backs up far more files than you’re likely to need. Another problem: It doesn’t work in Vista--one more reason why I’m giving an alternative solution.

You can download driverback.bat from [1]. (If that URL brings you to a web page of text rather than a file download dialog box, copy and paste the text into Notepad and save it as _driverback.bat_.) Running the batch file copies a great many files to a folder inside My Documents called driverback. Copy this folder to an external drive or burn it to CD for safe keeping.

To restore your drivers to a fresh XP installation, connect or insert the media containing your driverback backup. Select Start**Run, type _sysdm.cpl_, and press _<Enter>_. Click the Hardware tab, then the Device Manager button.

Repeat the following steps for each item listed that displays a yellow question mark:

1. Right-click

\ the item and select +Update Driver.+

1. In the

\ resulting Hardware Update Wizard, select Install from a list or specific location (Advanced) and click +Next.+

1. Check Include this location in the search and

\ point it to your driverback folder. Click +Next+.

1. If the

\ installation pauses because it can’t find a file, point it to your driverback

\ folder.

If you’re using Vista, don’t trust my admittedly crude batch file, or just want two backups, consider Innovative Solution’s free DriverMax ([2]). (Free, yes, but you still must register it if you wish to keep using it.)

Once installed and registered, it backs up and restores drivers with almost no fuss.