Driver location & Installation

My scenario:

My 8 year old HP CTO Win7-64 is running just fine. I can't afford a new PC with Win 10-64. I have the OEM installation disc's for the CTO which I have used over the years to do a clean install when I couldn't figure out how to fix a screw up on my part. I like the changes Win 10 affords so I bought a Win 10-64 Full Home version a year ago and let it do the update. The install went fine. Now, my principal hobby with the PC is MS-FSX. For those of you not familiar with that program, it flight simulation.

About a year ago, I got myself into one of those no fix situations with FSX. My only way out was a clean install of FSX. But before I did that, I decided to try clean install of Win 10 on my reformatted HD. Not realizing at the time that all the device drivers for my PC were located somewhere on the 4 OEM Win 7 disc's, my installation of Win 10 was cut short with error messages saying that the installation could not continue because vital device drivers could not be located. I then realized that the drivers I needed were not on the Win 10 DVD. So I was forced to reinstall Win 7 and then do the Win 10 update over again. A LONG and tedious process I want to avoid the next time I have to do this. Yesterday I downloaded a Win 10-64 ISO using the MS Media Creation Tool. This was downloaded to a USB flash drive. All went fine.

So my questions are these.

1. Are the device drivers (mobo-chipset-processor etc) located in the C:/Windows/System32/drivers folder or Drivers Store folder or someplace else? If so, can I add them to the USB flash drive so they can be loaded when I run the Setup app?

2. When these drivers are located, do they need to be configured in some special manner or process in order to be installed along with Win 10 from the USB drive, and what tools do I need to do this?

Thanks

OK, found the drivers. Once downloaded where do I put them?

Can I place them in one of the folders on my USB drive which contains the Win 10 ISO? My objective is to have them installed when I run the Setup app of the ISO. Is this possible?

Export the existing drivers using DISM:

How to Backup and Restore Device Drivers in Windows 10 / 8 / 7 | Password Recovery

And yes, you can put the drivers backup on the same USB flash drive as the Windows install media is created on.

Performance can change with different operating systems.
HP may have not tested drivers for the hardware.
If there are limited or no HP tested drivers for Windows 10 then each driver is on a trial and error basis.
It's best to make a backup image and test hardware.

1) Make a backup image using Macrium:

Macrium Software | Your Image is Everything
Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect

2) Save the backup image to another disk drive or to the cloud

3) With the backup image you have more flexibility for trial and error steps

4) Open the HP website > support > software and drivers https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/desktops > enter the product or serial number > select the operating system > view drivers > post a URL or hyperlink into this thread

5) See these HP links:

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c05195282
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...?os=windows-10
https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c04763435

6) Run driver view: https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/driverview.html

7) There are log collectors used in another forum,
Run each V2 and DM and upload results into this thread.
(V2 was designed to work with Windows 10 and may work on Windows 8 or 8.1)
BSOD - Posting Instructions

8) Download and install HP Hardware Diagnostics Windows: (right upper area of this link)
https://www8.hp.com/us/en/campaigns/.../pc-diags.html

9) Launch the application > click on system tests > system extensive tests tab > run once (plan to run overnight) > the next AM click on component tests (some are interactive) > run tests as needed > post images of the results into the thread

10) @NavyLCDR regularly uses a command to export drivers that can later be imported

11) Are you planning to use the iso for an in place upgrade repair or are you planning to use the iso as a clean install?
You can try the former and if it fails perform the later. If it works then you may not have to reinstall drivers and applications. There are steps that would need to be performed. This is despite any prior error messages. For example some computers using Windows 10 may see error messages upon upgrade that the computer is not compatible with windows 10.

zbook said:

Performance can change with different operating systems.
HP may have not tested drivers for the hardware.
If there are limited or no HP tested drivers for Windows 10 then each driver is on a trial and error basis.
It's best to make a backup image and test hardware.

1) Make a backup image using Macrium:

Macrium Software | Your Image is Everything
Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect

2) Save the backup image to another disk drive or to the cloud

3) With the backup image you have more flexibility for trial and error steps

4) Open the HP website > support > software and drivers https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/desktops > enter the product or serial number > select the operating system > view drivers > post a URL or hyperlink into this thread

5) See these HP links:

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c05195282
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...?os=windows-10
https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c04763435

6) Run driver view: https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/driverview.html

7) There are log collectors used in another forum,
Run each V2 and DM and upload results into this thread.
(V2 was designed to work with Windows 10 and may work on Windows 8 or 8.1)
BSOD - Posting Instructions

8) Download and install HP Hardware Diagnostics Windows: (right upper area of this link)
https://www8.hp.com/us/en/campaigns/.../pc-diags.html

9) Launch the application > click on system tests > system extensive tests tab > run once (plan to run overnight) > the next AM click on component tests (some are interactive) > run tests as needed > post images of the results into the thread

10) @NavyLCDR regularly uses a command to export drivers that can later be imported

11) Are you planning to use the iso for an in place upgrade repair or are you planning to use the iso as a clean install?
You can try the former and if it fails perform the later. If it works then you may not have to reinstall drivers and applications. There are steps that would need to be performed. This is despite any prior error messages. For example some computers using Windows 10 may see error messages upon upgrade that the computer is not compatible with windows 10.

Thanks for the very detailed info. Ref your post 11, my objective is to do a clean install using the ISO on my USB drive. I have downloaded all the drivers listed for my PC from HP and placed them all in a folder which I have labeled "drivers". Could/should I place this folder, as is, in the "sources" folder of the ISO folder and if this is the correct placement, would they be installed to my HD along with Win10 upon executing the Setup?

Downloaded HP drivers files are executable files. Once you run them they are extracted to a folder. Drivers files are *.ini, *.cat and *.sys types.
Normally you install win 7 or win 10, open Device Manager, look for missing drivers and then, one by one, do a "Update Driver" pointing to the folder that has the extracted driver files (*.ini, *.cat and *.sys). Once it finds the correct driver it loads it to the system.

You can modify sources\install.wim on the installation disk and add (slipstream) the drivers to one or all images on sources\install.wim using Dism.
As every 6 months you have a new Win 10 version, I don't think it worth the effort.