So much it is necessary to format our PC, since the prolonged use for years and the continuous updates of the operating system have made cleaning necessary that, if done step by step, would take us years. The best solution? A clean slate, but that also means a complete removal of hardware drivers. Well, today we are going to teach you how to do a backup copy of the drivers.
Every user should have a few USB drives in their drawer, not only for updating or restoring BIOS or as an operating system backup, but for anything crucial. For us, instead of having one big one in terms of capacity, it’s much more convenient to have several small ones and label them according to their usefulness. Unsurprisingly, it’s not bad to have a collection of USB drives for different purposes.
How to make a backup copy of your PC drivers?
First, make sure to create a folder with a name on your recovery flash drive, SSD, hard drive, or even memory card. It can be whatever you want, but we decided to call it DRIVERS in our case. Although what you need to learn is the path, try to find it in the root of the storage device. In other words, if Windows assigns the letter E, the access is D:/Drivers/ for said folder. Be sure to write it down somewhere so you don’t lose it.
Not to follow
For the backup of the drivers we will use a system terminal application called PnPUtil, to achieve this we must follow the usual procedure:
- Simultaneously press the Windows and “X” keys.
- In the black context menu that appears, select PowerShell (Admin)
- Say yes to the dialog box that appears.
- The next step will be the creation of the folder where we will store the drivers.
- Type E: to navigate to the storage drive where you want to save the drivers. Remember that the letter can change from system to system.
- Once in the directory, type mkdir drivers. Which will create the subdirectory or folder of the same name on our PC.
- Type cd drivers to enter the folder you just created.
- The last step is very simple, since you only have to write the following command:
- pnputil /export-driver*./
- pnputil /export-driver*./
What we are telling the system is to export all system drivers without exception to the current folder we are in, where they will be copied directly. Thus, with a simple order and in a short time.
What’s the point of doing it?
Well, the fact that you will be able to install drivers for your PC quickly and easily after formatting the drive without any hassle. It can also be useful to create several different folders to save the different driver updates for each component according to the date, in order to reverse a bad revision of the drivers which could cause you problems.
It is therefore a process that does not present any complications and which can save you trouble, especially because over time the drivers disappear from the Windows repository. Moreover, it should be one of the common maintenance tasks of your PC.
