In a previous column you provided excellent instructions on how to do a complete reinstallation of Windows XP. I have two follow-up questions on the topic. First, you mention that before reinstalling Windows you should take a backup of all your current drivers. Are these located in one specific area or do you need to find them individually? Second, Windows XP has a number of Service Packs and updates. Are all of the Service Packs cumulative (e.g. SP3 includes SP1 and SP2) or do you need to install each Service Pack in turn?

Thanks for your feedback about the previous instructions on reinstalling Windows XP. You have asked two very good questions which I have often been asked, so it is good to have an opportunity to discuss these aspects. Generally when I refer to taking a backup of your current drivers this does not mean that you should seek out the drivers currently installed on your computer. When you install a device driver these are copied to various system locations in the computer, making the retrieval of the drivers near impossible. Additionally, in many cases only the driver files are copied rather than the support files that are needed for the driver installation. Thus, without these support files you would not be able to reinstall the drivers since Windows does not have sufficient information to determine how the drivers should be installed. Therefore, instead of attempting to backup the existing drivers on your computer you should source the original driver install packages. There are two ways of finding these drivers. First, if your computer is a brand name machine (such as a Dell computer) then you may find it came with a driver CD. Once you have finished the reinstallation of Windows you can then insert the driver CD and it will automatically scan the computer and determine which devices are installed and then install the drivers for those devices. Be aware, some newer computers may not come with recovery and driver CDs but instead have a recovery partition located on the hard drive. This is a hidden portion of the computer hard drive which contains the same recovery information as traditionally stored on CD, but instead is now contained on the hard drive for added convenience. If your computer has some kind of automated recovery and reinstallation process (as found with most brand name computers) then you can assume that the drivers are included as part of the recovery so you shouldn’t need to do anything else apart from reinstall Windows using the method described in the computer manual and then follow the additional instructions to commence the driver reinstallation.

However, should your computer not be a brand-name machine (or not come with a driver CD) then you will need to manually source the drivers. This is generally done by visiting the website of the manufacturers for the various devices found in your computer and then downloading the latest drivers. You can find a fairly comprehensive list of devices in your computer by opening the Windows Device Manager. In Windows XP this can be opened by going to the “Start” menu > “Control Panel” and opening the “System” control panel (you may need to first open the “Performance and Maintenance” category if the control panel is being display in category mode). In the System Properties window that appears, select the “Hardware” tab and then click the “Device Manager” button. Once the Device Manager is open you can find a listing of the devices in your computer and download the relevant drivers from the manufacturer’s website.

Using the above method to locate the required drivers for your computer is good for the main types of devices, such as graphics cards, network adapters, sound, etc. However, this does not work as well for some of the more esoteric devices which are found, for example, on the computer motherboard. These are generally dealt with by installing a package of drivers for the computer chipset or motherboard. Of course, these can be harder to locate since unfortunately the Device Manager does not list a device such as “motherboard” or “chipset” but instead lists individual devices which comprise these larger hardware items. Making things more tricky is that if your computer has the network adapter or graphics adapter co-located on the motherboard (known as integrated network and integrated graphics) this means that without installing the proper motherboard or chipset drivers you may not have proper access to these critical devices. Generally, if you have a custom built computer then a manual or like should have come with the machine which indicates the brand and model of motherboard installed. If not, when restarting the computer this information should appear. Go to the website for the manufacturer of the motherboard and then download the driver packages for the motherboard in your computer.

Once you have got the drivers for the motherboard or chipset, plus any additional devices in the computer (such as graphics cards, etc.) then you should be well equipped for the reinstallation of Windows. The main drivers that you need to ensure you have are generally the graphics and network adapter. You need graphics otherwise the computer will be very difficult to use, since it may be running at quite a low resolution and also very laggy. That said, more importantly you need to ensure that you have network drivers. Without these your computer will not have any network access and you will not be able to download network drivers (or any other drivers) on the computer since you cannot access the network! So, to avoid the Catch-22 situation of needing to have network drivers to download the network drivers ensure you have these handy before reinstalling Windows.

Once you have finished the Windows reinstallation you should re-check the Device Manager and you may find that some devices are appearing with a yellow exclamation mark. This indicates that the device is not working correctly, most likely because the correct drivers have not been installed. In this situation you should venture onto the website for the manufacturer of the device and download then install the required driver.

Even if you are using a brand-name computer you may still find it worthwhile to check the website of your computer manufacturer for updated drivers. Often the drivers which are included on the recovery CD or partition are only current as of the date the computer was built. However, there may have been newer drivers released subsequent to those included drivers and generally running the latest drivers is advisable since they include the latest features and bug fixes.

We will now move onto your second question regarding service packs. You are correct that each service pack is cumulative, meaning that the latest service pack for Windows XP (Service Pack 3) includes all previous service packs and updates. So, you do not need to step-up the service packs gradually, but can instead just install Service Pack 3. In fact, if you have an earlier version of Windows XP and you run Windows Update, the first update that will download is Service Pack 3. You would then run Windows Update again to download all of the updates which have been released subsequent to Service Pack 3.

If you reinstall Windows on a semi-regular basis you may be interested to know that you can incorporate a service pack into the original Windows CD media and then create a brand new Windows CD which includes that service pack. For example, if you have a Windows XP CD you can integrate the Service Pack 3 update into the CD and then create a new Windows XP Service Pack 3 CD. This uses a process called “slipstreaming” and can be convenient as you don’t need to manually update Windows to the latest service pack after each reinstallation. You can find instructions on slipstreaming a Windows CD in the Silicon Kid archive at www.siliconkid.com.au/2011/02/slipstream-windows-updates/ . This also includes some handy advice about how to integrate post-SP3 updates into your Windows installation media.