Important data in your computer needs to be backed up, and drivers are no exception. Next, we will start with the concept of drivers and introduce in turn how to extract drivers, backup drivers, restore drivers, delete drivers, install new drivers and how to find drivers on the Internet. 1. What is a driver and the importance of backup driver? Device driver (abbreviation: driver, driver, English: device driver) can be described as the soft "nerve center" of computer hardware. Device drivers usually provide I/O interfaces for a certain device. The device driver receives the instructions sent by the I/O manager and translates these instructions into specific commands to control the devices it manages. After the device completes these commands, it notifies the I/O manager through the driver. Typically, a driver only provides services for a specific device. Drivers are divided into 16-bit and 32-bit. Most 16-bit drivers are used in Windows 3.x and Windows 95 systems. The file extensions are usually .DRV, .VXD, and .DLL; Windows 2000 and Windows XP systems. Drivers are all 32-bit, and the extensions are usually .SYS, .DLL, etc.; while the drivers of Windows 98/98SE and Windows ME are both 16-bit and 32-bit. .CAT files are generally Microsoft's digital signature files for drivers. Microsoft conducts compatibility and stability testing on drivers developed by hardware manufacturers (this certification is relatively strict). Drivers that can pass the test are awarded a digital signature (a .CAT file) and issued the Designed for Windows logo, and are added HCL list (Hardware Compability List), adds the driver to the Drivers.CAB file of the Windows installation CD. Drivers installed into the user's computer are generally stored in the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM folder for Windows 9x/Me systems; for Windows NT/2000/XP, the drivers are generally stored in the C:\WINNT\system32\drivers file folder. But this is not absolute. When we reinstall or upgrade the Windows system, the first question we think of is whether the driver disks that come with our graphics card, sound card, modem, network card and other hardware devices can be found. However, many of us may not be able to find all the driver disks. So can we extract all installed drivers at once and back them up to CDRW, removable hard disk, ZIP, MO or other partitions of the hard disk? After we reinstall the Windows system, can we install all the drivers back at once? The answer is yes. 2. How to extract the driver. Next, we will introduce a software - "Driver Wizard 2.02", which can help you simplify the tedious steps of driver extraction. Even beginners can complete driver backup with a few clicks of the mouse. The predecessor of this software was a free software "Driver Backup Expert 1.70", and version 2.00 was officially renamed "Driver Wizard". The new version of Driver Wizard 2.02 Personal Edition adopts a three-pass scanning and extraction algorithm for drivers, and supports driver extraction, driver packaging backup, and generation of driver automatic installation packages in EXE format. Of course, the biggest difference between the free version 1.90 and the paid version 2.02 is the last two functions. However, as far as extraction and backup are concerned, there is essentially no difference between the two. For those who have certain driver knowledge, you can choose the "driver extraction" method, which means that the extracted driver files will be stored in a folder named after the hardware device name and contain an INF file (when installing the driver , this installation information file is required). For those who are familiar with WinZip or WinRar software, you can choose the second method "driver packaging backup", which means that all extracted driver files will be put into a CAB format (Microsoft has supported this since Windows 95) format, both WinZip and WinRar support CAB format) compressed packages to save disk space. Of course, the INF file is also included in the compressed package; for computer beginners, choose the third method.

All driver files and installation information will be compiled by WinDriver Ghost software to generate an executable file in EXE format. To restore later, just double-click. Click the "Collect All" button to get detailed driver information for all hardware devices in the computer within two seconds, including: the official name of the driver, the version of the driver, the date of driver release, the publishing company, the operating system supported by the driver, Information such as the number of files in the driver package and whether the driver contains a digital signature from Microsoft Hardware Compatibility Testing Laboratory. Click the "Quick Collection" button to get all drivers produced by non-Microsoft companies. The essence of this button is to filter out Microsoft drivers, because drivers produced by Microsoft are usually released together with Windows products. When we install Windows, Windows will automatically install and configure the hardware it can recognize, so we do not need to Back up these drives. 3. How to back up the driver. If you want to back up the driver of a certain hardware device, you can first select it in the driver list, and then click "Backup Driver" on the right. The software will start to search for the required files. After the search is completed, a prompt will appear. , asking the user which folder to back up to. The default folder is C:\My Drivers. However, it is best to change it to D:\My Drivers because the contents of the C drive often change after reinstalling Windows. Click the "Start" button and the software will start extracting and backing up the driver. There will be a prompt after the backup to let you know whether the extraction process was successful and how many files have been copied. If users want to back up all their drivers with the click of a button, try "Backup All". The drivers that need to be backed up on the author's computer can be extracted and backed up within 2 seconds. All drivers are backed up to the D:\My Drivers folder. One thing to note is that each driver extracted from the backup contains a file named Setup.DIY. Do not delete it as soon as you look at .DIY, because this file contains important information needed to install the driver. How to restore a single driver through the control panel. The driver restore function of Windows XP can help users automatically restore the last good driver in the user's system (Last Good Known Driver), thus simplifying the steps for users to delete the wrong driver and install the correct driver. If the user wants to extract the driver for one, multiple or all hardware, then Windows XP will not be able to do anything. Below we will introduce to Windows 95/98/98SE/ME/2000 users and Windows XP users how to use "Driver Wizard" to restore old drivers and install drivers for new hardware. Whether you are restoring a backed-up driver or installing a driver for a new hardware device, you can use the Hardware Wizard in the Windows Control Panel. The specific method is: open the "Control Panel" and double-click "Add/Remove Hardware (A)". Select [Next]->[Add/Troubleshoot Devices (A)]->[Add New Device]->[Yes, search for new hardware (Y)]->[Next]->[Select the corresponding device type ]->[Install from disk (H)], enter a correct installation information INF file and related paths. How to use "Driver Wizard" to restore a single driver. For users who use the first backup method, there are two common ways to restore the driver: 1. If it is a plug-and-play (Plug And Play) device, Windows will automatically detect it and prompt Insert the drive disk, the system requires an installation information file (extension .INF); 2. If the device is not plug-and-play or cannot be automatically detected by Windows, it needs to be installed from the control panel. However, the "Install Driver" button in "Driver Wizard" greatly simplifies the latter. Users only need to select an installation information INF file and wait a few seconds for the software to automatically complete the tedious installation steps. For users who use the second backup method, they need to first decompress the CAB compressed package to a temporary directory, and then restore it according to the above steps. For users who use the third backup method, double-click the generated EXE file to enter the recovery wizard, click "Start" and wait for the system to restart.

How to use "Driver Wizard" to restore the drivers of all devices. Click the circled Arrow to see other new function buttons. Click the "Restore All" button, and the software prompts you to select the folder where the driver has been stored. The default folder is C:\My Drivers, but since the C drive needs to be reinstalled frequently, I backed up all my drivers to D:\My Drivers. Select D:\My Drivers and click the "Start Recovery" button. The recovery can be completed after the system restarts. For users who use the second backup method, they need to first decompress the CAB compressed package to a temporary directory and select it to start recovery. For users who use the third backup method, double-click the generated "all drivers.EXE" file and wait for the system to restart. I almost forgot to write you the download address of the software. : Software information and download address: The latest version of "Driver Backup Expert" is version 1.90, which is a green free software. Previous versions 1.10~1.70 had a serious "Unable to copy file (1206)" error under Windows 9x. Version 1.90 has completely fixed this error. The software size is 482KB, download address: .com/soft/8101.html The latest version of "Driver Wizard" is version 2.02, which is a free software with a 15-day trial. The software size is 1.39MB, download address: .com/soft/8760.html