How do I save and update drivers for pc with no disk prior to reformatting?

jje_2

£20 would be expensive for a format .

jje

jje_2

A format requires you to boot to the cd/dvd drive with a win xp disc in .
Start setup and you are given the choice somewhere to format the c drive . You choose yes and NTFS wait about quarter of an hour and its done .
Then either continue loading windows or not .
I am sure somebody can remember the exact sequence for loading disc and getting to the format screen .

jje

-TangleFoot-

Lady_K wrote: »

I've downloaded that drivermax and tried 6 times to register to get the free activation key but theres some error happening so cant do it, I'll try again in the morning.

If you're still having trouble with that, try Double Driver instead.

BritBrat

Lady_K wrote: »

It says on the Belarc program

Operating system
Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2 (build 2600)

Microsoft - Windows XP Home Edition5****-OEM-0******-6**** (Key: H****-R****-P****-3****-9****)e

Looks like your system is OEM.

I know this may above your skill level, but you could buy a new hard drive say 80Gig and take out the one you have now and install new drive and practice the new format and install and if it all works out OK leave it in.

If for some any reason you fail you swap the old drive back and it will be as nothing has changed, you can also do the same kind of thing if you make a disk image as I have mentioned before.

If you have SP2 and it looks like you do and you can pass the WGA test then your system at the moment is legit, but what will happen if you try a restore is another thing and unknown untill you try it.

BritBrat

Lady_K wrote: »

I've downloaded that drivermax and tried 6 times to register to get the free activation key but theres some error happening so cant do it, I'll try again in the morning.

You never had to activate it at all, just click the trial buttton at the bottom.

I just tried it to test.

Dime_Bar

I personally have never had any problems using Dell OEM disks to install on all manner of machines both Home and Pro, the activation will fail initially but you just click on the "change my product key" button and enter your COA.

culpepper

if you cant afford to go for a new windows disc,how about downloading puppy linux? I have teen puppy linux installed on a 3gb spare drive and it manages to recognise all my hardware without asking for any drivers at all.
You can run it from the CD without even installing it and it can find the network quite easily. I also have another puppy linux on a 880mb harddrive which has less features but still can get online and works from CD too if you dont want to install.
Quite handy to have as a spare operating system. It can see the windows drives without having to tell it anything special.
Excellent to revive a tired old windows 95 or 98 machine.
http://linux.softpedia.com/get/System/Operating-Systems/Linux-Distributions/TeenPup-31563.shtml

Lady_K

I took it in on Saturday afternoon and haven't heard back yet. I'm using the old win98 pc for now.

I did get the drivermax to register, I thought it didn't need registering at first but when I tried to do the driver test on it it said I needed to register in order to get full use of the site. I didnt get any of the drivers though as the function for downloading the drivers wasn't working and I don't know how long its going to be before it is. So I guess its a matter of looking up whats needed on google and getting them but where is safe to get them from. I just printed out the driver list as I spent so much time as it took me ages trying to save stuff from the computer because the blue screens didn't allow me to stay on long enough each time to get things. I had to do so many files at a time before I got kicked off again so didn't have time to get the drivers.

I told them in the shop I have no drivers or discs and not to do anything to it until I have a price for any work as its an older pc. I want to decide if its worth it, even though I can't afford a new pc I don't want to spend too much on it. I typed and printed out as much info as I could regarding the problems as its too much to explain in the shop.

Lady_K

Well they rang me a little while ago from the 2nd shop and said it isn't worth mending. He said its the main board and would I be interested in a 2nd user pc pentium3 512mb ram cant rem the processor size but its not big and I think he aid 60gb hardrive no cd or dvd for £150.

I was kind of expecting it but I am still quite upset because it was working fine until it was taken to the first shop. It just seems crazy that it was working directly before it was unplugged to go to them and then it wasn't directly after it came back.

I just wonder if he damaged it when doing the things they did as talking to my daughter over the weekend she said they were very heavy handed and clumsy with it. The man in the shop told the young lad on the counter to first take out the power supply and when the fan noise didnt go he had to take it out again and replace the old one, that took him ages and hed never done it before. Then he told him to take off the processor fan and put the new one on and hed never done that before either, that took him even longer till he finally said he couldnt do it and went and got the man and he was mad but did it but apparently he hadnt done it before either but as the main tech man wasnt there so he did it. He only told my daughter after he had done it and it took him ages too.

Nothing I can do about it now but I now have to look for another computer. Its come at a really bad time but I'll have to get the money from somewhere. Does anyone know any good pcs? I know vista takes more ram so it would have to be a minimum of 2gb ram. I dont really like the idea of vista but seeing as xp is almost phased out and will only be supported for another 2 years I may aswell go for a vista one.

I heard that hp are quite good but I also heard quite a few complaints about dell but then I also hear they are supposed to be good. I just want something thats going to be reliablle and last a long time. I saw some in Aldi but not sure if they are as good as hp or dell?

jje_2

Lady_K wrote: »

Well they rang me a little while ago from the 2nd shop and said it isn't worth mending. He said its the main board and would I be interested in a 2nd user pc pentium3 512mb ram cant rem the processor size but its not big and I think he aid 60gb hardrive no cd or dvd for £150.

-+I have bought for friends a number of base machines from a computer fair guy in the west midlands area all built there and then to order .
Typical current base unit is intel 64 dual core 2140 1gb ram dvd rewriter onboard sound and on board graphics 160 gb hard drive . Thats just the base unit no operating system sells at £175 .
Second user P2 at £150 hellishly expensive in comparison .

jje