Solved Windows Vista to Windows Vista Upgrade

[windows8]

Hi there!

I have an acer aspire running windows vista 32bit, and all my drivers were just fine, but today i did a clean install of the same OS and the internet driver and sound driver stopped working. I downloaded and installed the driver setups but they didn't work. I uninstalled from device manager before setup as well.

(the factory setting for the computer is XP professional, and i had been running vista for about 3 years now.)

I ended up doing a system restore to before the clean install.

Any idea's on how to get my clean install done AND keep the drivers?

thanks for your time

 

[richc46]

You could try DriverMax, it use to be free. Now, I think its free for a certain number of uses, but you can look into that yourself and try if you are interested.

EDIT: Mentions that software is free, but must pay for update. Can be used to find or backup drivers.
http://www.innovative-sol.com/drivermax/index.htm

 

[marcbf]

How can you do a "a system restore to before the clean install"? A clean install would be wiping the drive of the previous Windows installation - and by extension it wipes out previous restore points.

Did you install over the existing installation? If so, that is a real mess. You would need to make sure you get all MS updates first to make sure the proper versions of system files are back in place.

As for doing a clean install and keeping drivers, vLite is really handy for that. It requires a 1.3GB download of WAIK (Windows Automated Installation Kit) and 7-Zip - all three programs are no cost.

Install vLite: Download - vLite - Windows Vista configuration tool There is a link to WAIK after the EULA.

Download WAIK, install it. If you are running Vista 32-bit, you need to manually copy a file to the vLite directory. First entry here explains: [FAQ] Why does vLite asks for WAIK Installation - MSFN Forum

Install 7-zip: Download 7-Zip 9.22 Beta (32-bit) - FileHippo.com

Find all the drivers you will need and download them to your system. I recommend putting them all in one folder. A lot of drivers come in self-extracting cabinets and will auto-launch an installation program if you simply double-click them. here is where 7-zip comes in handy.
CD and DVD Tools Downloads - FileHippo.com
Right-click on each driver file you downloaded and extract them with 7-zip - even the .exe files. This will give you all the files you need later on. Again, having everything in one place (with sub-folder under each) is a big help.

Now launch vLite. You want to use the integration option and then the drivers tab to add your specific drivers to the installation image you are about to create. Here is a great guide on vLite: http://i4memory.com/f78/vista-ultimate-sp1-32bit-vlite-build-9493/

At the end, select the option to create an iso image. Once completed, use your favorite burning program to make a DVD of your Vista installation disk with your custom driver integrated! If you need a free program pick one from here:

Best of all, all the software is free and junk-free. Between the massive download of WAIK, the iso creation and burning, you are looking at about an hour.

 

[windows8]

TL;DR

Thanks for the help, I'm sure someone will make use of it :-)