Question about performing an Erase and Install of Windows 7

T

TechStuey05

Gawd
Joined
Aug 5, 2005
Messages
902
Hey guys,

I may need to perform an Erase and Install of Windows 7 64 bit OEM because of a hardware problem I had recently that might of corrupted my Operating System.

My question is: do I need the original disk drivers that came with my PC's Components after I perform a Clean install of Windows 7 or is Windows update all that I need to use?

Any info is greatly appreciated
 
It depends on your specific hardware. Windows Update is very good an in general it's been enough on nearly all of my systems, but if you want some of the special OEM features like their power management drivers, etc. you may need to get those from them.
 
get your nic drivers just in case .. and then you'll be able to at least connect to the internet to get whatever Win7 might not provide drivers for automatically.
 
ThreeDee said:
get your nic drivers just in case .. and then you'll be able to at least connect to the internet to get whatever Win7 might not provide drivers for automatically.
Click to expand...

+1

You can always download anything you need as long as you can connect to the internet. I always keep a USB wireless card with a driver CD around just in case the need for it ever comes up.
 
Thanks! Would Windows update automatically download the drivers for my High Point RocketRaid Card and my Video Card?
 
TechStuey05 said:
Thanks! Would Windows update automatically download the drivers for my High Point RocketRaid Card and my Video Card?
Click to expand...

Probably not, but even if it does I recommend downloading drivers from the manufacturer site. Specially the Video card drivers.
 
TechStuey05 said:
Thanks. What do you recommend that I download from the website vs using Windows Update.
Click to expand...
I recommend that you download *all* drivers from your hardware manufacturers' websites.

The question people are probably answering is what is the minimum to get you going after a clean install. The minimum is a set of network drivers to get the rest from on-line and your main components will have some sort of general or specific drivers available via windows update.

but your vendors will always have the best and most up-to-date drivers so even if they are operable after the initial windows install you'll still want to go through each of your hardware pieces and grab what they're offering.

since you'll be getting NIC drivers you may as well grab your controller driver and any kind of integrated components. since you have an OEM version you probably have something like a dell or? those large vendors will provide a full set of drivers so you can get pretty much everything you need based on your model/serial number.

even still I then go to intel and nvidia and grab their specific and latest drivers when all is complete, for example.
 
Thanks! I will download the drivers from the website. Which drivers do I download for my Asus P8z68 Deluxe Motherboard? There's about 11 categories of drivers (Chipset, bios, vga, lan) do I download all of them? Also where do I get the drivers for my Marvell controller? Is there an automatic drive updater?
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top