If you are looking then you are the right place because this website provides programs for free without any charge or malware here is the link to the website: https://sites.google.com/view/write-up/menu/windows/windows-10-drivers-backup-and-restore-for-all-devices

On 12/24/2023 12:18 PM, RocksolidAero wrote:
> If you are looking then you are the right place because this website
> provides programs for free without any charge or malware here is the
> link to the website:
> https://sites.google.com/view/write-up/menu/windows/windows-10-drivers-backup-and-restore-for-all-devices

More info from Ed Bott:
<https://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-10-tip-back-up-your-third-party-hardware-drivers/>

On 2023-12-24, RocksolidAero <austinaranha8@gmail.com> wrote:
>> If you are looking then you are the right place because this website
>> provides programs for free without any charge or malware here is the
>> link to the website:
>> https://sites.google.com/view/write-up/menu/windows/windows-10-drivers-backup-and-restore-for-all-devices

On 2023-12-25, Zaidy036 <Zaidy036@air.isp.spam> wrote:
> More info from Ed Bott:
> <https://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-10-tip-back-up-your-third-party-hardware-drivers/>

That's interesting. Who knew. Not me.
1. C:\> DIR C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\
06/16/2023 11:45 AM <DIR> en-US
12/15/2023 10:05 AM <DIR> FileRepository
12/16/2023 11:07 AM <DIR> Temp

2. Win+R > C:\Windows\System32\ & rightclick on DriverStore properties.
Size on disk: 3.83 GB (4,115,456,000 bytes)
Contains: 3,430 Files, 765 Folders

3. Win+R > C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore
a. rightclick on en-US
Size on disk: 2.70 MB (2,838,528 bytes)
Contains: 509 Files, 0 Folders
b. rightclick FileRepository
Size on disk: 3.83 GB (4,112,617,472 bytes)
Contains: 2,909 Files, 762 Folders
c. rightclick on Temp
Size on disk: 0 bytes
Contains: 12 Files, 0 Folders

But what about the "drivers" directory?
C:\> DIR C:\Windows\System32\drivers\
476 File(s) 211,082,703 bytes, 9 Dir(s)

Most of the "drivers" files have a simple ",sys" extension, while most of
the DriverStore files seem to be ".inf_loc" & ".inf_amd64_a1234a56b7cde8f9"
extensions so it's confusing to me whether we need to change the extension.

Looking it up, I found this which suggests backing up bother folders.
<https://www.minitool.com/data-recovery/windows-10-driver-location.html>

MajorGeeks recommends "driverstore explorer" to back them up
<https://www.majorgeeks.com/content/page/driverstore_folder.html>
<https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/driverstoreexplorer.html>
<https://github.com/lostindark/DriverStoreExplorer>
<https://github.com/lostindark/DriverStoreExplorer/releases/latest>
<https://github.com/lostindark/DriverStoreExplorer/releases/download/v0.11.92/DriverStoreExplorer.v0.11.92.zip>

Save to wherever you save your driver utilties (such as Dumo/Sumo utils).
For example, save to: C:\software\hardware\drivers\dsexplorer\.
Name: DriverStoreExplorer.v0.11.92.zip
Size: 982052 bytes (959 KiB)
SHA256: B80405B180FA879CECCBC87C27FEBE815605BF5FF7C25F25347FC85D6EDA4B5F

This extracts to multiple files (mostly apparently language files).
The executable appears to be this file though.
Name: Rapr.exe
Size: 2166784 bytes (2116 KiB)
SHA256: 2F1FE59A0131AD219ACFF0354030CF73E30DE2BD412E687DE4DCE114573B31FC

To install, just move to wherever you put your driver utilities:
C:\> move DriverStoreExplorer.v0.11.92 C:\app\hardware\drivers\dsexplorer

Create a shortcut in your WinXP-style Windows 10 accordion menu:
C:\> move Rapr.lnk C:\menu\hardware\drivers\dsexplorer.lnk

Test & report back your results so the team benefits from every post.
And so your results are permanently archived in dejanews for future use.

If I had known a simple "copy" would suffice to back up all the installed
hardware drivers, I would have copied them into my "data" directory
(as the data directory contains EVERYTHING I need to back up at any time).

C:\> COPY C:\Windows\System32\{drivers,DriverStore} C:\data\sys\drivers\.

Note: I never use plurals or caps (unless absolutely required,
e.g., "news") but I added them here for user readability.

Merry Christmas to all!
--
X-posted to freeware & Windows archival group for extra help & archival.
<http://groups.google.com/g/alt.comp.microsoft.windows>