Vista - Stupid Me but now drivers wont load.

I was reading a tweaking site and it was talking about how you could trim vista down to add some space to your HDD. WELL, seeing how Im the type of person who doesnt like unused files on my computer I went along with it and deleted the folder...

c:\windows\system32\driverstore

all was well until I bought a new USB stick drive. suddenly vista couldnt find the driver for it. so i went to my wife computer (also has vista) copied her c:\windows\system32\driverstore and put it back on my machine....but no luck....so then I copied her c:\windows\system32\drivers folder and put it on my machine....still no luck...

anyway to make a long store short....my vista wont or cant find any drivers for new USB devices....especially ones that do not come with any software.

I wrote the USB Stick Drive vendor (Kingston) and they said there are no drivers to download from them as vista should automatically recognize and load one of its default drivers...etc...

anyway...anyone know how to reverse my stupidity?

thanks
steph

Hi Currysteph,

Welcome to the Forum.
Try to repair Vista using this tutorial, if it won't help re-install your OS. It will work for sure, but first get bigger drive if your current setup is too small for you.

Cheers...

When you plug in the stick, does it prompt you to install the driver? If so, tell it you have the disk, and then point the directory to "C:\Windows\System32".

Also, check Device Manager. Are there any unrecognized devices? Try to install a driver for each, using the same method as above.