Help! Windows 98 system crash! Is there a way to backup the drivers?

Question

Greetings,   My Windows 98 system crashed on my Inspiron 7500 laptop.  I was able to run a linux-based operating system through a CD-boot disk (Knoppix) which has allowed me to access the hard drive and backup critical files to an external hard drive.    My question is whether there is any way to backup the drivers on the hard drive before I reinstall Windows 98?  I've been able to copy the contents of the windows folder (including system, system 32, etc) to the external drive.  Is it possible to just copy all of the .dll files from the Windows directory after I reinstall?  (I know there is software that you can install to backup drivers but I'm not sure if it can be installed through linux.....)   Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks so much!

Flooby · Answer

Why don't you just download and save what you need from here? http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/devices.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&SystemID=INS_PNT_P03_7500&os=W98&osl=EN

rdanjuma · Answer

Those are a list of DELL drivers. The drivers I need are for external devices that are not DELL branded. This is a question about Windows. Is it possible to copy the drivers directly from a Windows folder and then copy them back once I've reinstalled Windows?

Of course some of the drivers I need may be online but I'm not sure I will be able to find the driver for my wireless PCMCIA card.

Basically I'm wondering if there's an easier way to reimport the drivers.

Flooby · Answer

Aside from the fact that wireless cards are among the easier devices to find drivers for, all it would take is a simple Google search to get the question of whether there is such a thing as a driver backup utility available answered in great detail. That being said, I've never been all that impressed with the way they work, and given the fact that there are often better functioning (read: more up to date) drivers available for download, I don't think I'd be all that inclined to put much stock in any of them. I7500s aren't all that difficult to put back together anyway, so it's not like one would be saving a whole lot of time by backing up old drivers.

Windows General

Help! Windows 98 system crash! Is there a way to backup the drivers?

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