EVEN MORE TRICKS FOR A SAFE AND EASY REINSTALLATION

In my last week’s column I left out another shortcoming of DriversGuide Toolkit. I’ll bring up a graphic of the Toolkit.

In summary I clicked the ‘My Installed Drivers’ button, then the ‘List non-Microsoft drivers’ button in the line below. Then I clicked the ‘Select folder for driver backup:’ button.

The click brings up a box similar to my computer. I selected a folder I had already created, called MyDrivers2, and then clicked OK. ( The ‘New Folder’ button allows you to created a target folder on the fly.)

Finally I clicked ‘Backup selected Drivers’ (with the ‘Select all’ radio button checked, not shown in this screen shot), with the following results.

The drivers are unchecked one-by-one as they’re backed-up, presumably to MyDrivers2. After all have been backed up – allegedly – the check boxes are unchecked, and the select all radio button is blank and the ‘Backup Selected Drivers’ button is disabled.

Now let’s look at the MyDrivers2 folder.

Nothing in the folder. I tried with a couple other folders as well, with the same results. I did a search, to see if they were placed elsewhere. They weren’t.

DriversGuide Toolkit is not perfect, but it’s a helpful tool. Along with the additional information I’ve passed on, you shouldn’t have a problem having all your drivers available when you reinstall your operating system.

Now let’s turn to the free program, Belarc Advisor. After running it, sending the results to my Yahoo account, burning them to a CD, and printing them out, I was shocked to find a glaring defect.

Because I’m organized, this defect was only a minor inconvenience. For you it might be a real pain. Let’s take a look at Belarc’s shortcomings, and figure out a way to head off problems in advance.

In my September 24, 2004 column I displayed part of Belarc’s report. I’ll copy that screen shot here.

I added the comment: ‘I’m only showing you part of the report. I’m keeping the program versions and licenses private.’

‘As with many free programs this isn’t the most useful format in which to output the details. Hard to copy, hard to reinsert. Still, Belarc is a real time-saver. Send the .html file to your yahoo.com email address and copy it onto a CD. Perhaps print it out as well. That’ll make it easier to type in the serial numbers as you’re reinstalling the software.’

I accepted Belarc’s claim to extract the serial number of each program installed on a user’s machine at face value. It doesn’t. After I reinstalled Windows XP, I discovered that Belarc extracted the serial numbers of only some of the programs I had installed.

All my Microsoft programs’ serial numbers were extracted – Microsoft keeps a list of them for me on the internet, a perk of being a Universal Subscriber to MSDN ( Microsoft Developer’s Network). However, many other programs were overlooked.

While Belarc’s report displayed the serial numbers for Norton System Works, it didn’t for Norton Anti-Virus. It didn’t display the serial numbers for Winzip, Spy Sweeper, and any number of programs.

If you buy a program in a store, the serial number will be on the CD. Similarly, if you buy a program over the internet and have them ship you a CD, the serial number will also be on the CD. As a matter of precaution, I suggest you copy the CD and write the serial number on it.

These days people tend to buy over the internet and download the program. Of course the download almost always includes the serial number in an information file as well as the installation program. Often the serial number isn’t needed – it’s embedded in the program.

You can see now why you should always back up the downloaded program and any additional files to a CD. If I didn’t mention this before I apologize.

This finishes my series on reformatting your hard disk and reinstalling your operating system.

Next week we’ll discuss how to recover lost passwords.

Dennis Turner