Reinstalling XP... .

David333

I want to reinstall XP on an old laptop. I have a copy of XP (now nlited with service pack 3), my activation key and a laptop. I'm a bit worried that when I reinstall XP I won't have all the drivers, in which case will it not work...? I don't have the original CDs for the laptop so would like to make a copy of all the drivers somehow. I've had a look on the webpage (it's a Thinkpad T20) and there are over 60 different things you can download. Is there any reasonably quick way to make sure I have all the necessary drivers before I do a reinstall? Thanks!

OneADay

You might have a serial for XP - but is it going to activate ? Thats your first question.

Second - download as many of the drivers before attempting a re-install - the must have driver is for the network - so once you install it you can get back onto the net and download any missing drivers.

Knub

If you have the laptop website that's all good.

Windows XP will reinstall but you might be missing drivers for devices that Windows might not recognise such as:

Custom sound device in your laptop made by manufacturer
Manufactueres WIFI adaptor
Built in ethernet (LAN).

Laptops are one of the easiest things to reinstall if you do your homework first. Purley because the vendors do supply links to their indvidual model numbers and list all drivers available to download.

One thing you might have trouble with as a result is ETHERNET/LAN/MODEM drivers that you use to be on the internet - they might not work once reinstalled.

Best thing to do is to find the name/brand/driver of your network adaptors at least and download them. Then put them on USB Storage/Any Media. WHen you have wiped/reinstalled XP, you will still be able to use XP but certain things wont work - as described above.

You will then be able to plugin your USB Storage/Any Media and install the drivers from there. Reboot and job done.

To check drivers:

Start---> Run---> Type: devmgmt.msc , press OK --> Lists of devices and drivers can be found in this tree.

(Display adaptors, Network adaptorss, Sounds Video and Game etc).



E.G- Networking Adaptors +++ Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet (Or something similar for you)

Expand the menu, right click on the device, click properties, click DRIVER tab.

Note the Date/Version/Provider. Then use this information to find out the driver you need from the website.

(Again please note sometinmes the website will have NEWER drivers than what you are using, it doesn't matter as long as you have a working driver for XP for the device).


Bit of a muddled post but hopefully some useful information here. If in doubt, download ALL the "listed" XP drivers for your make/model and put them on storage off the computer. You can't go wrong then...

Any questions just ask!

-TangleFoot-

David333 wrote: »

Is there any reasonably quick way to make sure I have all the necessary drivers before I do a reinstall?

Download and install Double Driver, then run it. Click on 'Scan' to list the drivers installed on your system, followed by 'Backup' to make a copy of them, at which point you'll be asked to choose where you want them to go. Ignore the other options for now - the defaults are fine.

David333

OneADay wrote: »

You might have a serial for XP - but is it going to activate ? Thats your first question.

Second - download as many of the drivers before attempting a re-install - the must have driver is for the network - so once you install it you can get back onto the net and download any missing drivers.

I seem to remember some sort of software (JellyBean?) which makes sure that the activation key you have is the one on your computer; that should mean it's sure to work, shouldn't it...?

David333

Knub wrote: »

...
Bit of a muddled post but hopefully some useful information here. If in doubt, download ALL the "listed" XP drivers for your make/model and put them on storage off the computer. You can't go wrong then...

Any questions just ask!

Thank you for your help. This is the link to the T20 page: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-4JSQHB.html Do I just download everything on this page or download drivers associated with each individual piece of hardware (graphics card, etc)? I don't mind if XP reinstalls and I can't get on the Internet, I shall work that out when I reach that point. I'm just worried that reinstalling will get me to a point where the disk drive, USB point doesn't work, and then I'm stuck and can't do anything... .

Knub

David333 wrote: »

I seem to remember some sort of software (JellyBean?) which makes sure that the activation key you have is the one on your computer; that should mean it's sure to work, shouldn't it...?

Also, try googling: Windows Key Finder.

It is a program that will basically tell you your install Key for certian products on your PC. OFtne including, Windows Operating System, MS Office, etc.

Rich44_2

There should be in the root of the C drive all the drivers, the ones you get from IBM/Lenovos website auto extract and stay in C:\Drivers or C:\IBMtools or something like that just backup those folders and should be all you need.

If not then there's a tool you can download from IBM/Lenovo which will autotmatically find and download drivers for you

Knub

David333 wrote: »

Thank you for your help. This is the link to the T20 page: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-4JSQHB.html Do I just download everything on this page or download drivers associated with each individual piece of hardware (graphics card, etc)? I don't mind if XP reinstalls and I can't get on the Internet, I shall work that out when I reach that point. I'm just worried that reinstalling will get me to a point where the disk drive, USB point doesn't work, and then I'm stuck and can't do anything... .

Personally, I've written a long conveluted way of doing it which could have been simplified.

I think I am endorsing Tanglefoot too much today, but his solution works best. Effectivley it's software that exports your drivers onto *any media* and then can be used later to reimport them.

If you aren't confident in drivers/devices/etc then use his solution. Much quicker/more effective.


The part you are describing about everything not working will not happen. XP will boot unless something drastically goes wrong. It's just as I said, you might not have any sound, or LAN ports to connect to broadband. Your video card might be using generic display drivers - meaning you can't play games until you update the drivers, but you can still see everything fine - that kind of thing.

It will work, just not at 100% efficiency.

David333

Knub wrote: »

Personally, I've written a long conveluted way of doing it which could have been simplified.

I think I am endorsing Tanglefoot too much today, but his solution works best. Effectivley it's software that exports your drivers onto *any media* and then can be used later to reimport them.

If you aren't confident in drivers/devices/etc then use his solution. Much quicker/more effective.


The part you are describing about everything not working will not happen. XP will boot unless something drastically goes wrong. It's just as I said, you might not have any sound, or LAN ports to connect to broadband. Your video card might be using generic display drivers - meaning you can't play games until you update the drivers, but you can still see everything fine - that kind of thing.

It will work, just not at 100% efficiency.

Yeah, the worry was that it'd be broken. I can build it up to 100% once I get it going again. I've never done a reinstall so it's all very worrying... . Thank you for your advice though!

I shall download Tanglefoot's recommendation and use it to gather all of my drivers. One further question: nlite has an option to include add-ons and drivers. Would you recommend me adding the drivers I recuperate from my Thinkpad onto my nlited version of XP?

Knub

David333 wrote: »

Yeah, the worry was that it'd be broken. I can build it up to 100% once I get it going again. I've never done a reinstall so it's all very worrying... . Thank you for your advice though!

I shall download Tanglefoot's recommendation and use it to gather all of my drivers. One further question: nlite has an option to include add-ons and drivers. Would you recommend me adding the drivers I recuperate from my Thinkpad onto my nlited version of XP?

A possibility, but in terms of drivers I would always have them stored somewhere seperatley in their own folder on some storage. That way you always have access.

You probably could nlite it all but for the one time reinstallation or however many times you do it - probably not worth it.

Your computer is working 100% fine now.

Booting from WinXP CD, formatting drives and reinstlaling fresh does absolutley nothing different to a computer operating normally. It's software.

The only experience I have ever had is that my system was unstable, so I tried format/reinstall to try and fix it but the instability remained.

All this meant was that the problem was hardware related (broken mother board as it turned out) and not software related.

Wiping/Reinstalling is fine, just be sure to backup ANY data you have on the drives you don't want to lose, because you WILL lose it And a spare copy of drivers is just good sense

Good luck!