Back Up Your Windows Drivers Before You Reset (It Takes 5 Minutes)

Before you reset Windows, reinstall it, or replace your drive… stop. There’s one thing almost everyone forgets until it’s too late: your drivers.

When Windows is working, everything feels normal. After a reset or clean install, you can end up with no Wi-Fi, no sound, the wrong screen resolution, and Device Manager covered in yellow warning triangles. And now you need to download drivers from the internet… on a computer that can’t get on the internet.

Backing up your drivers takes a few minutes, costs nothing, and uses tools already built into Windows.

Prefer to watch instead of read? Here’s the full walkthrough — or skip it and keep reading below.

First: A Driver Backup Is Not a File Backup

This only saves drivers. It doesn’t save your pictures, documents, license keys, BitLocker recovery key, or that Desktop folder named “Stuff.” Back up your actual data too — see what to do before you reset your PC.

Where to Put the Backup

Use an external USB drive, flash drive, portable SSD, or NAS — anywhere that is not getting wiped. Never save it to the drive you’re about to reset. That’s not a backup, that’s a sacrifice.

Give the folder a real name, like Dell-Laptop-DriverBackup-Oct-2026 (computer, model, date). Six months from now, a folder called “backup” means nothing. And if it’s on a cheap thumb drive, make a second copy.

Method 1: DISM (Built In, My First Choice)

1. Plug in your USB drive and create a folder, for example E:\DriverBackup.
2. Click Start, type cmd, right-click Command Prompt, and choose Run as administrator.
3. Run: dism /online /export-driver /destination:E:\DriverBackup

Change E:\DriverBackup to your actual drive letter and folder — don’t blindly copy mine. And the word “online” doesn’t mean internet. It means the Windows installation that’s currently running. Very intuitive.

This exports the third-party (non-Microsoft) drivers installed on your PC. You’ll get folders with names like oem27.inf. Not pretty, but it works. If the folder is empty or suspiciously tiny, don’t trust it.

Method 2: PowerShell

Open PowerShell or Windows Terminal as administrator and run:

Export-WindowsDriver -Online -Destination "E:\DriverBackup"

It does basically the same thing as DISM. Use whichever makes your eye twitch less.

Method 3: PnPUtil (For the More Technical)

pnputil /export-driver * E:\DriverBackup exports third-party driver packages from the Windows driver store. Useful for techs and power users; most people should start with DISM or PowerShell.

Method 4: Double Driver (If You Want Something Visual)

Double Driver is a free, portable tool many old-school techs remember. It scans your drivers, lets you focus on the non-Microsoft ones (Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, Realtek, Dell, HP, Lenovo), and backs them up into readable folders. It’s old, so don’t treat it as a modern miracle, but it still works for a simple backup. Download it from a reputable site like MajorGeeks — never from a page with fourteen green download buttons — and run it as administrator.

DriverBackup! (yes, with the exclamation point) is another older free option. Same rules: reputable source, scan the download, don’t expect perfection.

What I Would Not Use

Most “driver updater” programs. You know the ones: 37 outdated drivers, your registry is crying, and for $29.99 it can fix everything. They can install the wrong driver, an older buggier one, or junk you didn’t ask for. Drivers should come from Windows Update, your PC or device manufacturer, or your own known-good backup.

Also Download the Critical Drivers Manually

Even with a backup, grab your network, chipset, and storage drivers from your PC manufacturer’s support site before you reset. Especially the network driver.

How to Restore a Driver After a Reset

1. Right-click Start and open Device Manager.
2. Find anything with a yellow warning icon or listed as Unknown Device.
3. Right-click it → Update driver → Browse my computer for drivers.
4. Point it at your backup folder, make sure Include subfolders is checked, and let Windows search.

Test It Before You Need It

Open the backup folder and confirm the files are actually there. Add a text file called READ ME - Driver Backup with the date, PC model, Windows version, and why you made it. If you already keep a recovery or Ventoy USB, add a “Driver Backups” folder with a subfolder per computer. (No recovery USB yet? Tomorrow’s post shows you how to make one.)

The Short Version

1. Back up your files first. Drivers are a separate job.
2. Export drivers to an external drive with DISM or PowerShell (or Double Driver if you want a visual tool).
3. Manually download your network, chipset, and storage drivers too.
4. Check the backup folder isn’t empty, and label it.
5. After a reset, restore from Device Manager → Browse my computer for drivers.

It takes a few minutes and costs nothing. Windows already provides enough irritation for free.

Stay grumpy.