The Extortionists

 

 

In the mood for a true crime story? Well, here's one - and you're the victim! What we have here is a case of extortion - nothing less! It's unbelievable, but true; you, me, and all of us are being held hostage!

 

It's even worse than that - because this extortion could end up costing us lots of money, time and frustration. But it's a fact; your expensive PC/laptop; all your files, work and e-mail; the hours of toil and trouble you put into your career, are all being held hostage by a couple of lines of simple code - that can disappear at any time, with the result being that you will have to shell out big bucks for either a new computer, or at least force you to spend time you can't spare on what often ends up to be a wild goose chase! It's drivers, folks; I'm talking about drivers, those little controller pieces of software that we don't think about until it's too late - which is when they disappear by getting erased, damaged by a virus, or subject to other daily PC hazards. "For lack of a nail the shoe was lost, and for lack of a shoe the horse was lost," goes the old saying; well, to that we can add the following: "For lack of a stupid piece of computer code, a $3000 computer is going to end up in the garbage!"

 

Despite their attempts to appear intelligent, the sad truth is that computers are pretty dumb; they wouldn't know to come in out of the rain during a hurricane (I've checked this out personally, so I know). And of course, they don't know a video card from a sound card from a modem card. That's where drivers come in; they identify hardware that are part of the computer to the operating system, which can then take advantage of their capabilities. But without those drivers, your PC won't know what to do with those add-on peripheral cards - and some integral functions may be affected as well.

 

 

Any idea where that CD is now? I didn't think so! Some drivers (like the ones for HP printers) come with update agents, which occasionally scan the company Web site for new versions of drivers, and Windows XP has the capability to scan sites for driver updates and even for initial installations of driver software. But those are not the most reliable backups for your driver collection; Windows often can't find the driver you need or downloads the wrong one; and driver update agents only work if the original driver is functioning properly.

 

 

 

Okay, I think I've done enough to sufficiently raise your awareness of the importance of caring for your drivers. But you can beat the system! While there are sites that let you request drivers from others who might have them (http://www.driverfiles.net/), a little pre-planning will save you a lot of tsuris. MyDrivers (http://www.zhangduo.com/driverbackup.html) will take care of all your driver needs, backing them up and restoring them at your leisure. MyDrivers is free for 15 days, and afterwards it costs $39. But you really only need to use it once! Install the program, let it scan for drivers, and back them up in all the formats MyDrivers allows you to - as .cab files, as a single installable .exe file, as a backup to a folder. Then copy all the backups onto one - no, make it three - CDs, floppy disks, network sites, whatever. Then take a nice, long nap - the first one you'll be able to take as a free person, no longer under the threat of driver extortion!