Restoring drivers after reformat

F

frankzappa77

Member
I have a question about finding hardware information after a reformat (for driver installation).

Lets say I have a box with no OS or driver CDs, and I install Windows (XP or Vista). Is msinfo32 capable of telling me what the hardware is even if I don't have the drivers for it (assume fresh install, first boot)?

I was reading this stickied thread and was wondering if tools like msinfo32 and GPU-Z would be able to give me the name of the manufacturer and model of a piece of hardware even if I didn't have the drivers installed.

I recently helped reformat a friends computer, and while he had most of the driver CDs, he didn't have one for his sound card. I tried letting Windows Update search for the drivers through devmgmt.msc, and while usually in my experience it finds the drivers needed, it couldn't find anything. After reading the linked thread, I thought I might try using msinfo32 to find info about his sound card manufacturer (it's not integrated and the actual PCI card didn't have the model info on it).

Does anyone have any knowledge on this subject?
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Acer Aspire 5630
    CPU
    Intel Core 2 Duo T5500 1.66GHz 65nm 667MHz FSB 2MB L2
    Motherboard
    Acer Grapevine Intel i945GM Chipset
    Memory
    2x1GB DDR2 333MHz
    Graphics card(s)
    Intel Integrated GMA 950 256MB
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15.4" WXGA Acer CrystalBrite LCD 16ms
    Screen Resolution
    1280x800
    Hard Drives
    200GB 5400rpm Toshiba MK2035GSS ATA-7, 250GB 7200rpm Maxtor External USB Hard Drive
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My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Acer Aspire 5630
    CPU
    Intel Core 2 Duo T5500 1.66GHz 65nm 667MHz FSB 2MB L2
    Motherboard
    Acer Grapevine Intel i945GM Chipset
    Memory
    2x1GB DDR2 333MHz
    Graphics card(s)
    Intel Integrated GMA 950 256MB
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15.4" WXGA Acer CrystalBrite LCD 16ms
    Screen Resolution
    1280x800
    Hard Drives
    200GB 5400rpm Toshiba MK2035GSS ATA-7, 250GB 7200rpm Maxtor External USB Hard Drive

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Gateway P7805u FX
    CPU
    Intel Core2Duo T9600 2.80GHz 1066MHz FSB
    Motherboard
    Intel PM45
    Memory
    8GB 1066MHz DDR3
    Graphics card(s)
    Nvidia GeForce 9800M GTS 1GB DDR3
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG 17" WUXGA TFT
    Screen Resolution
    1920x 1200
    Hard Drives
    WD 2x500GB
    Case
    notebook
    Other Info
    BT/BD
I have Everest Ultimate Edition and I'll try the PC Wizard 2008. I guess the only way to figure this out is to do a dual boot XP without drivers and try this out. I'll get back to this thread with results if I ever get the time to do so.

Edit: PC Wizard is amazing, wonder why I never found if before on CPUID's site
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Acer Aspire 5630
    CPU
    Intel Core 2 Duo T5500 1.66GHz 65nm 667MHz FSB 2MB L2
    Motherboard
    Acer Grapevine Intel i945GM Chipset
    Memory
    2x1GB DDR2 333MHz
    Graphics card(s)
    Intel Integrated GMA 950 256MB
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15.4" WXGA Acer CrystalBrite LCD 16ms
    Screen Resolution
    1280x800
    Hard Drives
    200GB 5400rpm Toshiba MK2035GSS ATA-7, 250GB 7200rpm Maxtor External USB Hard Drive
I finally got around to dual booting a fresh install of Win XP and I've tried 3 different programs to detect hardware without any drivers installed (I used the programs on the first boot). None of my laptop drivers were included in the XP CD, so I didn't have any ethernet, audio, graphics (integrated Intel GMA 950), SD card (5 in 1 reader), or wireless drivers.

HWiNFO32 detected everything except for my network hardware.
PC Wizard 2008 along with Everest Ultimate Edition (v5) detected everything.

So if you're in a situation where you reformat and don't have any driver CDs (and you don't want to pay for any programs), use HWiNFO32 and PC Wizard 2008. Also, if you're thinking about reformatting, I found a nifty little program called DriverMax which backs up all of your drivers (or you can select certain ones) and then even imports them once you reformat (you have to reisntall DriverMax after reformat for this).

Oh and if anyone else knows any hardware detection programs that they would like me to test out, tell me now, I'll just leave the XP partition on my HD, driverless for a bit.

I hope this info is helpful to others.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Acer Aspire 5630
    CPU
    Intel Core 2 Duo T5500 1.66GHz 65nm 667MHz FSB 2MB L2
    Motherboard
    Acer Grapevine Intel i945GM Chipset
    Memory
    2x1GB DDR2 333MHz
    Graphics card(s)
    Intel Integrated GMA 950 256MB
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15.4" WXGA Acer CrystalBrite LCD 16ms
    Screen Resolution
    1280x800
    Hard Drives
    200GB 5400rpm Toshiba MK2035GSS ATA-7, 250GB 7200rpm Maxtor External USB Hard Drive
Thanks for posting back Frank. I'm glad you found the PCWizard useful. You can download PCWizard as the portable one. Very useful to run from the usb stick for example. Try the ReSysInfo portable, too.

Thank you again. Cheers...
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Gateway P7805u FX
    CPU
    Intel Core2Duo T9600 2.80GHz 1066MHz FSB
    Motherboard
    Intel PM45
    Memory
    8GB 1066MHz DDR3
    Graphics card(s)
    Nvidia GeForce 9800M GTS 1GB DDR3
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG 17" WUXGA TFT
    Screen Resolution
    1920x 1200
    Hard Drives
    WD 2x500GB
    Case
    notebook
    Other Info
    BT/BD
I'm working on a Gateway LX 6810-01 and he completley reformatted his hard drive. He ordered some factory discs to restore to factory settings but when it loads it up it just hangs.

I made a vista 64 recovery disc and it loads up.. When it does it asks for the Dvd/cd Rom driver.

The device is a HL - DT - ST DVDRAM GH15F SCSI Cdrom Device

It lets me serach for it and flash drive is an option and I have one handy, however I can't just find the driver I need and put it on this flash drive for the computer I'm working on.
 

My Computer

System One

I didn't know optical drives had drivers, I thought they only needed firmware - or doesn't Windows use a 'universal' driver for all optical drives?

Is there an operating system currently installed on the HD? If Windows, try running devmgmt.msc (Device Manager) and find the piece of hardware which has a yellow exclamation mark next to it and try updating it online.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Acer Aspire 5630
    CPU
    Intel Core 2 Duo T5500 1.66GHz 65nm 667MHz FSB 2MB L2
    Motherboard
    Acer Grapevine Intel i945GM Chipset
    Memory
    2x1GB DDR2 333MHz
    Graphics card(s)
    Intel Integrated GMA 950 256MB
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15.4" WXGA Acer CrystalBrite LCD 16ms
    Screen Resolution
    1280x800
    Hard Drives
    200GB 5400rpm Toshiba MK2035GSS ATA-7, 250GB 7200rpm Maxtor External USB Hard Drive
I have no idea if it's firmware or a driver, but the hard drive is wiped. I'm using a vista 64 bit recovery disc thats asking for the driver or whatever.
 

My Computer

System One

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