Windows 10: Backup and Restore Device Drivers in Windows 10

How to: Backup and Restore Device Drivers in Windows 10

How to Backup and Restore Device Drivers in Windows 10


Information If you clean install Windows, you will need to install drivers for each device in the system. Some of these device drivers may no longer be available from the manufacturer, or you misplaced a backup of the driver installation file from the manufacturer.

It would be a good idea to back up your device drivers before doing a clean install to make it easy to restore any of these drivers as needed afterwards.

This tutorial will show you how to back up and restore all 3rd party device drivers on your Windows 10 PC.

You must be signed in as an administrator to be able to backup and restore drivers.


CONTENTS:

• Option One: To Back Up All Device Drivers in Command Prompt
• Option Two: To Back Up All Device Drivers in PowerShell
• Option Three: To Restore a Device Driver Backup in Device Manager

OPTION ONE [/i] To Back Up All Device Drivers in Command Prompt


Note For more usage details about the dism /export-driver command, see:

DISM Driver Servicing (.inf) Command-Line Options - Microsoft MSDN


1. Open an elevated command prompt.

2. Enter the command below into the elevated command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)
*Arrow dism /online /export-driver /destination:"full path of folder"



Note Substitute full path of folder in the command above with the actual full path of the folder (ex: "F:\Drivers Backup") you want to export all 3rd party device drivers into. If this folder doesn't currently exist, you will need to create it first before running the command.

For example: dism /online /export-driver /destination:"F:\Drivers Backup"





3. When exporting has finished, you can close the elevated command prompt if you like.

4. The device drivers will now be exported into the specified folder location (ex: "F:\Drivers Backup") as your backup. (see screenshot below)







OPTION TWO [/i] To Back Up All Device Drivers in PowerShell


Note For more usage details about the Export-WindowsDriver command, see:

Export-WindowsDriver - Microsoft TechNet


1. Open an elevated PowerShell.

2. Enter the command below into the elevated PowerShell, and press Enter. (see screenshots below)
*Arrow Export-WindowsDriver -Online -Destination "full path of folder"



Note Substitute full path of folder in the command above with the actual full path of the folder (ex: "F:\Drivers Backup") you want to export all 3rd party device drivers into. If this folder doesn't currently exist, you will need to create it first before running the command.

For example: Export-WindowsDriver -Online -Destination "F:\Drivers Backup"





3. When exporting has finished, you can close the elevated PowerShell if you like.

4. The device drivers will now be exported into the specified folder location (ex: "F:\Drivers Backup") as your backup. (see screenshot below)







OPTION THREE [/i] To Restore a Device Driver Backup in Device Manager
1. Open Device Manager.

2. Right click or press and hold on the device (ex: "Intel(R) RealSense(TM) 3D Camera (Front F200) Depth") you want to restore a driver backup for, and click/tap on Update driver. (see screenshot below)



3. Click/tap on Manually install a driver. (see screenshot below)



4. Follow the steps below to select the folder (ex: "F:\Drivers Backup") containing the backup of your device drivers from Option One or Option Two above. (see screenshots below)
1) Click/tap on the Browse button.

2) Navigate to and select the folder (ex: "F:\Drivers Backup") containing the backup of device drivers.

3) Click/tap on OK.

4) Check the Include subfolders box.

5) Click/tap on Next.




5. Device Manager will now search for and install the device driver if it's newer than what is currently installed. (see screenshot below)



6. When you have finished restoring driver backups, you can close Device Manager if you like.

That's it,
Shawn


Related Tutorials

• How to Roll Back a Device Driver to a Previous Version in Windows 10
• How to Enable or Disable Including Driver Updates in Windows Update in Windows 10
• How to Turn On or Off Automatic Device Driver Installation in Windows 10
• How to Enable and Disable Driver Verifier in Windows 10
• How to add or remove hardware device drives on an Offline Image with DISM

:)

 

installing windows 10 backup and restore later

1. Backup Vista
2. Upgrade Vista->Windows 7 -> Windows 10. Get activated.
3. Backup Windows 10.
4. Clean Install Windows 10. Make sure still activated
5. Backup a fresh copy of Windows 10
6. Restore

To perform step 4 i will need to have downloaded an iso and create a dvd or usb to boot from.....so will not this ISO be ok and the one you mention ?

 

Restoring Windows 10 Image using Macrium Reflect


In addition to the above. Here's my suggestion in step by step.
I assume you have Macrium Installed in your current HD and already made a backup copy.

1. Connect your new HD via USB port and boot up.
2. Run Macrium, click on Restore tab then select the Backup Image that you made to restore
3. click on "select a different target disk" then select your new HD as destination
   
   
   
4. Proceed to restore then Shutdown and disconnect the old HD and replace with the new HD
5. Boot up with your new HD.

 

Unlocked Realtek HD Audio Drivers Windows 7 & 8 (With Dolby Digital Live and DTS Interactive)

DTS supported natively by Windows 8/8.1 and it should work on windows 10 too just DDL require to unlock your driver .

 

Free hard drive backup/restore program?

I am looking for a free (freeware) program that will back up and restore a hard drive. I'm looking to clone a few external hard drives. If the program will backup the used space instead of the whole drive this will be awesome! Thanks for any suggestions.

 

Windows 10. USB Device Driver Installation problem

Hi Lex,

Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft Community.

I understand the issue that you are currently facing, we will try the best we can to resolve your issue.

• Did you make any changes to the computer prior to the issue?
• Since when are you facing this issue?

Error code 28 indicates that the drivers for that device are not installed.

As of now I suggest you to restore the drivers to previous version by rolling back. To restore a driver to its previous version, kindly follow the below given steps.

You must be logged on as an administrator to perform these steps.

• Press Windows key + X
  and then click on Device Manager.
  ‌
• Double-click the category containing your device driver, and then double-click the name of the device that you want to restore to a previous driver version.
• Click the Driver tab, and then click
  Roll Back Driver.

If you are logged on as a standard user, the button will be dimmed, which means it's unavailable. You must be logged on as an administrator to roll back a driver.

Please let us know if the issue persist and we will be happy to assist you further.