Good day!

I think many users have encountered the installation of one driver or another; even the new Windows 7, 8, 8.1 operating systems are not always able to independently recognize the device and select a driver for it. Therefore, sometimes you have to download drivers from various sites and install them from CD/DVD disks that come with new equipment. Overall, this takes a fair amount of time.

In order not to spend this time searching and installing every time, you can make a backup copy of the drivers, and if something happens, quickly restore it. For example, many people often have to reinstall Windows due to various bugs and glitches - why look for drivers again every time? Or let’s say you bought a computer or laptop in a store, but it didn’t come with a driver disk (which, by the way, often happens). In order not to look for them in case of problems with Windows OS, you can make a backup copy in advance. This is exactly what we will talk about in this article...

Important!

1) It is best to make a backup copy of the drivers immediately after setting up and installing all the equipment - i.e. when everything works well.

2) To create a backup you will need special program(more on this below) and preferably a flash drive or disk. By the way, you can save a copy to another partition of your hard drive, for example, if Windows is installed on the “C” drive, then it is better to place the copy on the “D” drive.

3) You need to restore drivers from a copy to the same version of Windows OS from which you made it. For example, if you made a copy in Windows 7, then restore from the copy in Windows 7. If you changed the OS from Windows 7 to Windows 8, and then restore the drivers, some of them may not work correctly!

Programs for creating a backup copy of drivers in Windows OS

In general, there are quite a lot of programs of this kind. In this article I would like to focus on the best of their kind (in my humble opinion, of course). By the way, all these programs, in addition to creating a backup copy, allow you to find and update drivers for all computer devices (more on this in this article:).

1. Slim Drivers

One of best programs for working with drivers. Allows you to search, update, make backups, and restore from them almost any drivers for any devices. This program's driver database is huge! Actually, I’ll show you how to make a copy of the drivers and restore from it.

http://www.boozet.org/dd.htm

Small free utility to create backup copies of drivers. Many users use this one, personally, I haven’t used it that often (a couple of times over the entire period). Although I admit that it may be better than Slim Drivers.

A very good program that allows you to easily and quickly create and restore drivers from a copy. The only thing is that this program has a smaller driver base than Slim Driver (this is useful when updating drivers, but does not affect when creating backup copies).

Creating a backup copy of drivers - instructions for working in Slim Drivers

Important! To work, Slim Drivers requires an Internet connection (if before installing the drivers, your Internet does not work, then, for example, when you reinstall Windows, problems may arise when restoring drivers - it will be impossible to install the Slim Drivers program to restore the drivers. This is such a vicious circle).

1. To create a backup in Slim Driver, you first need to configure the location on your hard drive where the copy will be saved. To do this, go to the Options section, select the Backup subsection, specify the location of the copy on your hard drive (it is advisable to select a partition other than the one where you have Windows installed) and click the Save button.

3. Literally in a matter of minutes (on my laptop in 2-3 minutes) a copy of the drivers is created. The successful creation report can be seen in the screenshot below.

Restoring drivers from a backup copy

After re Windows installations or unsuccessful driver update - they can be easily restored from our copy.

1. To do this, go to the Options section, then to the Restore subsection, select the location on your hard drive where the copies are stored (see just above in the article, you need to select the folder in which we created the copy), and click the Save button.

3. The program will warn you that you will need to restart your computer to restore it. Before rebooting, save all documents so that some of the data is not lost.

That's all for today. By the way, many users praise Driver program Genius. I tested this program, it allows you to add almost all the drivers on your PC to a backup copy, plus it will compress them and place them in automatic installer. Only during recovery, errors are often observed: either the program was not registered and therefore only 2-3 drivers can be restored, or the installation is interrupted halfway... It is possible that only I was so lucky.

Happy everyone!

Drivers are an important part operating system. They act as intermediaries between the system and hardware devices. Their main task is to interpret incoming signals from both the system and the device itself. Without the proper drivers, the device will either work incorrectly or not work at all.

As a rule, each device comes with a CD or DVD with necessary drivers. Or drivers can be downloaded from the device manufacturer's website. The latter, by the way, may be more relevant, since the latest versions of drivers can be found on the site. This is especially true for video cards.

But sometimes it happens that driver disks are lost, and the manufacturer’s website no longer supports this device. Or does the situation simply develop in such a way that this driver almost impossible to find. In such cases, the best solution is to create backup copies of drivers. For this there is a special software, which, in fact, allows you to create backup copies already installed drivers in system.

If you have an old operating system and you have lost some of the disks, or you cannot find drivers for some of the devices (for example, for a printer that has been serving you faithfully for 5-6 years). It would be a good idea to make a backup copy of all installed drivers on the system. Even if you have all the drivers at hand, it is still highly recommended to make a backup copy and save it somewhere safe. This is not only a way to protect yourself from unforeseen circumstances, but also an opportunity to save time during their recovery.

Advice: it's best to use several different programs. Since anything can happen in life, it is possible that one of the programs will not be able to restore drivers correctly. In this case, you will always have backup options at hand. This way you will save yourself time and nerves.

Note: never forget to make backup copies of your data.

IN this review considered programs that can not only create backup copies of drivers, but also restore them. Programs that cannot restore drivers are mentioned in the “Other programs” section. First of all, this is due to the fact that for ordinary users, and even more so for beginners, the task manual recovery drivers may be overwhelming. Therefore, in the review, one of the most important criteria for consideration is the correct restoration of drivers in the system.

Some of the programs reviewed can also update drivers, but this is not an important criterion. Initially, the consideration comes precisely from the point of view of backup and restoration. The update is just an additional plus. In addition, we specifically draw your attention to the fact that the best place to find driver updates is the manufacturers' websites.

Unfortunately, not all of the programs reviewed are able to display a list of drivers installed on the system. If you're specifically interested in the list of installed drivers, you can use an excellent little utility called DriverView from Nirsoft.

Review of free driver backup and recovery programs

Double Driver is a convenient and powerful tool for backing up and restoring drivers

It has a simple interface and is very easy to use. The most notable feature is that the program allows you to create backup copies of drivers from non- running system. Which will be especially useful in cases where for some reason your system does not boot, and it is not a fact that you will be able to revive it. This functionality gives the program a significant advantage over its analogues. So keep it with you, marked “for a rainy day.”

By default in the list for Reserve copy Only third party drivers are selected. This is very convenient, since there is no particular point in copying Windows drivers, except in rare cases. To work with the list, there are a number of buttons for quick selection: invert selection, select all, or deselect. You can also select individual drivers. Selected drivers can be copied to a separate structured folder (the default option), to a compressed folder, or to a self-extracting file (some kind of archive). The last option, by the way, led to the program crashing.

Recovery is just as easy. Select the location where your copies of the drivers are stored. Then select from the list exactly those drivers that you want to restore. And start the process. It is worth noting that the drivers are restored quite quickly. Moreover, after restoration, all devices felt great.

Double Driver allows you to save a list of drivers in text file. You can also print the list directly from the program. This is very convenient when you need to keep track of which drivers have been installed on the system. The list is quite informative. For each driver, its name, version number, date, hardware identifier and much more are written.

Overall, Double Driver is a simple, reliable program that includes a number of unique features. Therefore, it can be safely placed at the head of any list.

Driver backup and recovery program SlimDrivers is a good tool with a nice design

has a modern and attractive user interface that will attract you from the first minutes. The backup and restore selection lists are very similar to the standard device manager. And if you consider that SlimDrivers is a gold certified Microsoft partner, then this fact becomes completely unsurprising. However, SlimDrivers works just as well with both system and third-party drivers. But, unfortunately, you won’t be able to select all system or all third-party drivers. So in such cases, you will have to either backup all drivers or manually select from the entire list.

Another feature that can be classified as a disadvantage is that SlimDrivers saves drivers in folders named based on the base name or device ID. If you restore drivers yourself with SlimDrivers, then this will not cause much of a problem. But, if for some reason you have to restore drivers not through the SlimDrivers program, then this can become a really big problem, since you will have to work hard to find the necessary driver.

Unfortunately, SlimDrivers was unable to backup drivers for devices that were not connected to the system.

Also, during driver recovery, several errors occurred. However, after the restoration was completed, a detailed inspection showed that all drivers were restored. But still, mistakes are mistakes. Therefore, it is difficult to say that the program is reliable.

One more point that needs to be mentioned. Don't forget to select the same folder for backup and restore. If you do not do this, the list of drivers in the recovery section will be empty. And you won't be able to select individual drivers. You will have to restore the entire backup.

By default, SlimDrivers starts every time the system starts. Therefore, you will have to spend a little time to disable this setting, for example, using the startup manager. In addition, the first time you launch the program, SlimDrivers will open the home page in the browser. But, only at the first time.

SlimDrivers has a habit of remaining in the system tray even if you close it. To actually exit the program, you need to close the program in the tray. To be honest, this is a clearly unnecessary feature, and it does more clutter on your desktop than it does any good. After all, backup and restore operations are sporadic in nature, not daily.

However, for a program of this class, SlimDrivers does its job quite well.

Note:

1. SlimDrivers can only be installed online. The program does not have an offline installer. So if you do not have access to the Internet, this will come as an unpleasant surprise for you.

2. When installing, carefully look at the checkboxes and what exactly will be installed. Since the installer is in every possible way and under different types(depending on the program version) tries to install the AVG Security panel.

3. The program is inherently portable. You just need to copy the executable file from the SlimDrivers folder to Program Files. Oddly enough, there are no other files in the folder. And it seems that the program only needs an executable file to work. Here the question arises: “Why create an installer then?”, and from point two the answer arises: “Then”. Well, plus everything, the program leaves traces on your system. In principle, the reasons are clear, and it is difficult to condemn a free program. On the other hand, once you install it, you will get a portable program forever.

The DriverMax driver backup program is a good example of when older versions are better than new ones

. Until version 6, it included many useful options. But, starting with version 6, most of them have sunk into oblivion. Quite an unpleasant moment.

In terms of options and features, each free new version of DriverMax takes several steps backwards, which is very disappointing. It is no longer possible to see and save a list of existing drivers. Previously, these features were a big plus for the program. Also more early versions allowed to save both system drivers and third-party ones. Currently you can only save third-party drivers. Previously, you could also create backup copies for hidden devices. Now there is not even a mention of them.

The interface looks modern and attractive. Also, now the interface does not freeze between operations. Earlier versions experienced delays. It seems that the developers decided to make free version nice prototype. And they are successfully moving towards this goal from version to version.

In the backup window, you will only see third-party drivers. In principle, everything is quite clear in the window. You can select all or just a few drivers. If you do not select a path to save the backup, the drivers will be saved in zip archive in the My Drivers folder inside My Documents. By the way, this is exactly the place where DriverMax looks for backups for recovery by default. Subsequently, you will not need to do anything with these archives; the program restores drivers directly from them.

The recovery process is still slow. Noticeably slower than its analogues. If we compare DriverMax versions, then of course it is faster than previous versions, but, nevertheless, it is still very slow. But, despite the speed, the program restores drivers conscientiously.

Note:

1. Again, carefully study the installer windows. They will try to force AVG Security on you again. Look at all the checked boxes. When installing additional components, carefully look at their names. And if you see AVG Security, then feel free to cancel the installation.

2. Now the program starts with the system by default. So you will again have to take the time to disable this setting. Again, you can use the startup manager. Just like SlimDrivers, when closed it hides in the system tray. So to close completely, you need to close the program in the system tray.

DriverBackup driver backup program! not a bad alternative

allows you to both create backup copies of drivers and restore them. But, unfortunately, during testing the program was unable to restore the drivers, for an unknown reason. Really more disappointing. Since the program shows great promise, since it can do a number of really good things. DriverBackup! can create backup copies of drivers from a non-running system, which clearly sets it apart from its analogues.

DriverBackup! does a really good job of creating backups, as it includes a number of useful settings. When launched, the program displays all installed drivers on the system. With one click you can select both system and third-party drivers. In this case, the choice can be further detailed. You can select all drivers with full portability (according to DriverBackup!) or all drivers with digital signature. And all in one click. Drivers are saved in folders with the corresponding device names. The program also generates a special .bki file, unique to the program, which contains information about the backup files. This file is used during recovery setup to provide a human-readable list of drivers.

DriverBackup! can create backup copies of phantom devices, i.e. devices that were once installed on the system, but are not present in this moment time. Which is especially useful if you often connect various peripherals(printers, scanners, etc.)

The help file is well organized. It describes all possible operations in sufficient detail and clearly. The program can be used from the command line.

Although the program is portable, it is nevertheless difficult to call it fully portable because starting from version 2 it requires .NET 2.0. Therefore, if the computer does not have a 2.0 framework, the program will not work. This can be considered a disadvantage. It would be possible to use earlier versions, but they do not know how to restore drivers.

However, the program is made to last, and if it were not for the problems when restoring drivers, as well as the mandatory presence of .NET 2.0, then it could be called the best program.

DriverBackup! is in active development, so all that remains is to wait for a release that can be put at the top of the list.

Other Windows driver backup and recovery programs

These programs are also designed to create backup copies of drivers.

• Driver Magician Lite. It copes very well with the task of creating a backup copy of installed drivers, but, unfortunately, it does not know how to restore drivers at all. The interface is nicely organized. All third-party drivers are highlighted in the general list. It’s really convenient, because there can be quite a lot of drivers in the system. To create a copy, you can select either individual drivers or the entire list. The backup is created in the form of beautifully structured folders with clear device names.
• DriverPack Solution Lite. Not recommended. The program is more likely intended to update drivers than to create a backup copy. Just like other programs on this list, it cannot restore drivers. And it seems that it doesn't work quite correctly. According to the description, the program can save a backup copy to an exe file. But! There is no difference between backups with the selected exe format and the regular format.

  The program installer contains a bunch of unnecessary adware. She suggests installing Delta Toolbar, changing search engine to Delta, as well as change the browser home page. And a number of other changes. Therefore, during installation, you need to very carefully look through each installer window for checked boxes.

  The program's interface is quite strange. Plus, you will find a number of functions that are not needed at all for driver update/backup programs. Of course, the device manager can be considered a necessary functionality, but it doesn’t make much sense. But what is clearly superfluous is access to the control panel installed programs. It is also unclear why the program has a bunch of unnecessary utilities, such as memory testing, defragmentation, and anti-virus scanning. The program also has an item for BIOS updates. And apparently this point is not only unnecessary, but also dangerous.

• DriverGrabber (link is incorrect). The program is too simple and has no settings at all. Creates backup copies of third-party drivers only. Do copies of Windows drivers is possible only by editing the necessary INI files. It's hard to imagine that regular user will be able to do this. The program is not developed and does not have its own normal website. However, it is difficult to say whether the program will work on 64-bit systems and on Windows Vista and Windows 7.
• Driver Collector. The official website no longer exists and the program is no longer being developed. There are no settings in the program. It also cannot create backup copies of drivers in batch mode. Instead, you need to select and create copies manually. This somewhat undermines the goal of "making the world a simpler place."

Testing procedure

Testing was carried out on Windows XP. Despite this, the software reviewed is also perfect for backing up drivers for Windows Vista and Windows 7.

First of all, using each program, backup copies of drivers were made from the reference operating system. It had drivers installed from various manufacturers' CDs. Motherboard, webcams, network cards and others.

After that, driver recovery tests were done on another hard drive, which was connected instead of the disk with the reference system. An identical copy of Windows XP was installed on the test hard drive. But, in which no third-party drivers were installed (essentially a clean system). A system image was made for a test copy of the system so that after each test the system could be returned to its original state. the initial state. Within each test, only the program under test was installed (if required). And, in fact, an attempt was made to restore all the drivers. Then the drivers were compared according to the list, as well as simple checks of the functionality of the equipment. For example, try to watch a picture from a webcam.

Quick selection guide (download free Windows driver backup and recovery program)

Double Driver

Driver discs from a recently purchased motherboard, or from the video card, tend to disappear at the most inopportune moment.

And such a moment comes, most often when restoring the system or setting it up from scratch, when disks with drivers are simply necessary.

Of course, to download drivers for the motherboard, you can visit the manufacturer’s website, go to the “support” section and download the most new version. But nothing can come of this, because network adapter You also need the driver that was on the lost disk.

You can make a backup copy of the driver CD to your HDD in advance, but this will not help if the entire hard drive fails and not individual logical drives.

Moreover, the "drivers" directory is often sent to the trash - it is large, but 3-4 drivers are needed.

The author tried a couple of times to store system drivers on a flash drive, but with the same ending. In general, data safety is a hot topic, and you will like another useful backup program - Cobian Backup.

May your system live happily ever after, but if you had to restore everything from scratch, use the small Double Driver program in advance. Tested: it’s better to spend a few minutes on it, and in case of problems with the operating system, it will save you a lot of time and nerves.

Double Driver - backup and restore drivers

This program is nothing more than a tool for working with drivers installed on the system. In a very short period of time - no more than a minute - it is capable of analyzing installed drivers, creating a list of them and making a backup copy.

Double Driver is easy to use and easy to operate, which is not hindered even by the lack of Russian and Ukrainian languages. Even an inexperienced user will be able to cope with the program.

The program interface is clear and functional: Double Driver has a toolbar with a set of functional buttons. So what to look for" the desired button" among an array of windows will not be necessary.

In addition, all the tools are arranged in order, according to the frequency of their use.

To scan the system, you need to select the "Backup" tool and click the "Scan Current System" button.

Then we select the drivers that we want to add to our backup.

By analyzing the available system drivers, Double Driver displays a full report on each of them - manufacturer, installation time, etc.

The analysis result can be printed using the "Print" tool.

As already mentioned, the program is characterized by high performance, while it consumes few resources and the overall performance of the PC does not drop during operation.

By creating a backup database, Double Driver takes care of user convenience: copied files are not thrown into one directory - they are distributed across directories that are named identically to the names of the devices.

Needless to say that the saved backup copy takes up many times less space on the flash drive than a copy of the entire disk?

It is not known why, but the developer added one detail to the program: during operation, you can configure the display mode of both all drivers of the system as a whole, and the display mode of drivers exclusively from Microsoft.

To restore, you need to use the "Restore" tool and click the "Locate Backup" button. You will be given the option to select a backup to restore.

When restoring a set of drivers, the program also shows its best side - just like when creating a copy, it takes very little time, no more than a minute.

Good day... Reinstallation of the operating room Windows systems may occur for various reasons. But a backup copy of the drivers should always be created. For quick recovery system (after reinstallation)...

For this procedure, many different paid and free programs. Let's first look at the regular ones Windows ways 10 ways to back up your drivers...

Before we start backing up the drivers, we need to create in the root of the disk (exactly the disk where the backup will be created), a folder with a name, for example “Backup”. It is better to transfer the saved ones to a USB flash drive or external hard drive.

Backup drivers using the command line

Right-click to open the Start menu, then run command line on behalf of the administrator. Like that...

A command line interpreter window will open, enter the following data pnputil /export-driver * F:\Backupreplace the F:\Backup data with your own, where F is the name of your logical drive, and Backup is the name of the folder for saving drivers. Then press the “Enter” button.

Copying of drivers will begin, which will take some time. Once the process is completed, the result will be shown...

Close the command line interpreter window. To view the saved copy of the drivers, go to your logical drive (which you specified when copying), then to the “Backup” folder. This is how easy it is to back up your drivers...

Backup drivers using DISM

DISM.exe utility. also creates a backup copy of drivers. Here we also need a command line, which we launch in the same way as above, then enter the following command dism /online /export-driver /destination:F:\Backup, I draw your attention to the logical drive letter and folder name.

Press “Enter”. After which the process of copying drivers to the specified folder will begin.

Close the command prompt and go to hard drive to view the saved copy of the drivers.

Backup Drivers Using PowerShell

For those who don’t know how to launch PowerShell in Windows 10, do the following: right-click the “Start” button, select “Find” and enter PowerShell in the search bar, then launch this utility on behalf of the administrator.

In the program window we enter following values Export-Windows Driver -Online -Destination F:\Backup Again, I draw your attention to the logical drive letter and folder name, you will have your own. Press “Enter” and wait for the copying to complete, which will take some time.

To view saved copies of drivers, go to the appropriate logical drive and folder.

How to restore drivers from a Windows 10 backup

Installation of drivers should occur only after installing Windows 10. Go to “Device Manager”, to do this, tap on the “My Computer” shortcut, select “Manage”, and then to “Device Manager”.

In this section, click on the device for which you need to install a driver and select “Update driver”. In the window that opens, select “Search for drivers on this computer.”

Then select the folder on your computer with the saved drivers and click the “Next” button.

Conclusion

From the proposed list, . Copying drivers in Windows 10 can be done using system tools without resorting to third-party programs...

Almost all experienced users have at least once encountered the need to reinstall . If you frequently install and uninstall programs, download stuff, and surf the Internet all day long, it will eventually lead to clutter. file system, failures, errors, freezes, in short, all those unpleasant consequences, in order to get rid of which the user decides to undergo the reinstallation procedure.

In principle, there is nothing complicated in reinstalling Windows itself; reinstalling drivers can be much more difficult, especially if the disk with “native” drivers that came with the computer (usually a laptop) was lost or was not there at all.

In such cases, it may help you to back up your drivers. Immediately before reinstalling Windows(or better yet sooner) you will need to create full backup all drivers and save it to portable media or to a user partition.

To create such a backup copy, you can use the program Free Driver Backup. Free Driver Backup- it's simple free application for driver backup. The application has two scanning modes: search for recommended drivers and search for all drivers.

Also Free Driver Backup will give you the opportunity to find out detailed information about installed drivers, such as version, name, release date, developer company, number of files, etc. Working with the program is easy and simple.

Once launched, Free Driver Backup will scan your system and present full list all installed drivers, after which you can select the necessary components from the list. To start the backup process, click the Backup button. Copies of drivers are saved in the directory located at C:/Program Files/Free Driver Backup/BackUp.

In this case, each driver is assigned a separate folder. You cannot set your own path for saving backups in Free Driver Backup; they can only be copied manually.

It is also done manually - there are no means of automating recovery in the program.

From additional features utilities, you can note the reservation of cookies, IE settings ( Homepage) And system registry. Oddly enough, but in the case of backing up the latter, the user can still choose the directory to save.