No choice but to reinstall or worst reformat your computer
? Is this scenario familiar to you? Below is the list of common Windows XP errors that may lead to reinstallation of your operating system.
Registry error
Virus or malware infection
Wrong or incompatible device driver
Bad software installation
Incompatible software
Security Software conflict
Slow performance
Whatever is your reason of reformatting your computer you will surely be redoing all installation of your applications, windows updates, and of course your windows xp drivers. Computers may run smoothly even without your desired applications and windows updates, but not without its devices drivers. If you agree with that then you will also agree that having a backup of your windows xp drivers is an important part of operating system's setup and configurations.
2 ways to backup your drivers
Manual backup to make a manual backup you need to know the locations of the driver files. Windows drivers are located in different locations.
For help files: %windir%help
For inf files: %windir%inf
For system files: %windir%system
For system32 files: %windir%system32
For driver files: %windir%drivers
Note: %windir% is the location of your windows directory folder, default is C:WINDOWS
To confirm its location, check Device Manager. Here is how.
While you are in the Device Manager window, double click the device that you want to backup. Device Properties windows will open.
Go to the Driver tab.
Click Driver details. Driver File Details window will open. There you will see all driver files and its location.
Here is batch file that will copy all driver files for you.