Tips for reinstalling drivers after formatting a computer

Windows 7

1. Right click on “Computer”
2. Click on the “Device Manager” link, located in the left hand side tasks menu

XP

1. Right click on “My Computer”
2. Select “Properties”
3. Click on the “Device Manager” button

Vista

1. Right click on “Computer”
2. Click on the “Device Manager” link, located in the left hand side tasks menu

Under Device Manager you will see a listing of drivers on your computer. Look for anything that has a yellow question mark by it. A yellow question mark means that driver is missing. Make note of all the drivers you will need to find. Next are steps to easily get all drivers.

1. Install the “ethernet controller” first. This is the driver that allows you to connect to the internet. If it is missing, you will need to download it on a different computer that is connected to the internet, then transfer the driver to the formatted computer and install it. To locate this driver, go do your computer manufacturer’s website, then search your computer’s make/model. There should be a section of drivers you can download on the manufacturer website. Be sure to download the drivers for the operating system you are using. Look for the ethernet controller driver (sometimes called a network driver), then save it on a USB flash drive or external hard drive. Next go to your formatted computer and install the driver. If you are still seeing a yellow question mark in Device Manager next to ethernet controller after installing the driver, you have not located the correct one for your computer. Go back to the manufacturer website and try finding a different driver.

2. Once you have the ethernet controller driver installed, you can do the rest of the work from the formatted computer. First, get all updates for your computer (windowsupdate.microsoft.com). Installing the latest updates will often update some of your missing drivers automatically for you.

3. Go to Device Manager and look for any yellow question marks. Right click on the item, then choose “update driver”. Let your computer automatically connect to the internet to search for the driver. You can usually install a couple of drivers this way.

4. Finally, if you have any remaining yellow question marks, you will need to go back to the computer manufacturer’s website and search for those specific drivers to download and install.

Note: You can download all drivers from the manufacturer’s website from the start, however I usually recommend doing this step last. The reason is that there are often several driver possibilities to download for each driver, and if you do not locate the correct one on the first try you can end up spending some frustrating time searching for the correct driver and are essentially taking a chance that you will get the correct one each time. Letting the computer automatically install drivers for you through updates can sometimes be easier in the long run

How to format a computer

***********WARNING************

(also known as reformatting, wiping or restoring your computer to factory defaults) The following steps will delete all of the information off of your computer’s hard drive. Please make sure that you have backed up all your data, programs, address book, data, calendars, etc, etc. It will ALL be gone after these formatting steps

***********WARNING************

What is the benefit to formatting my computer? How to format the computer’s hard drive:

These steps are for formatting your primary drive (normally C:\) in Windows 2000, XP, Vista, and Windows 7 and to reinstall the operating system.

The easiest way to format your computer is by locating your operating system CD. Look for a CD or DVD that specifically says “Operating System” or “System Restore”. Insert the installation disc into your CD or DVD drive.

Restart your computer.

When your computer is restarting, you will be prompted to “Press any key to boot from CD”. Simply press any button on your keyboard when you see this message. If you do not see this message when you restart your computer, you may need to reset your boot disk sequence. *

*To reset the boot sequence, go into BIOS mode. To do this, restart your computer and while restarting press the F1, F2, F10, or maybe the delete key (your computer screen will say “To enter setup press xxx”. You only have a few seconds to press the correct key, so if you miss it you will need to restart your computer and try again. Once you have successfully entered the BIOS mode, look for your boot sequence options. Set the CD ROM drive to be the 1st in the boot sequence. Save your changes and exit.

The CD will load a blue screen, then after a few minutes will ask you to press Enter to set up Windows.

You will then be prompted to select where to install Windows. There will be a box on the lower half of your screen that will either show “Unpartitioned space yyyMB” or will have “Partitioned space yyyMB”. Highlight which partition you wish to format (typically it will be the unpartitioned space or the space with the largest partition by most megabytes). Hit Enter after selecting the space to partition.

The next step is to choose which file system to format the drive with. The NTFS option will be the fastest option. For most formatting purposes, choose the option that ends in “Quick”. Press Enter when done.

The computer will then begin the formatting process. This process may take a while depending on the size of the hard drive you are formatting and the speed of hard drive.

As soon as the drive has been formatted, the operating system files will be copied to the hard drive and the operating system will start installing.