DriverPacks.net Forum - USB-flash-drive drivers progressive bloating?

Re: USB-flash-drive drivers progressive bloating?

null@example.com (wyatt23santos) — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 06:22:33 +0000

i usb in that there is an inbuilt ANTIVIRUS but it is expired and i want to delete it but it is not working

Re: USB-flash-drive drivers progressive bloating?

null@example.com (ricktendo64) — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 14:31:12 +0000

Most/all USB drives will share the same driver, it will not increase the size on disk it will just reinstall the same driver for a different usb port

Re: USB-flash-drive drivers progressive bloating?

null@example.com (jackkids) — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 07:38:17 +0000

agree with mr_smartepants

Re: USB-flash-drive drivers progressive bloating?

null@example.com (mr_smartepants) — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 18:34:27 +0000

Right. So for XP, some of the drivers are stored here: C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\ with the .inf files stored here: C:\WINDOWS\inf\
The original driver.cab file is stored here: C:\WINDOWS\Driver Cache\i386\
Drivers downloaded from WU/MU are here: C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download\

Re: USB-flash-drive drivers progressive bloating?

null@example.com (twipley) — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 17:24:41 +0000

Ok. So, in XP for example, such drivers would be stored in a driver "chest," on the HDD, and then loaded to RAM only when the flash drive (for example) gets inserted? Makes sense.

If that's true then I do not need to worry about the number of devices that get installed to my system -- drivers won't get loaded anyway until those devices get reconnected.

Strange thing Google did not help me much on that one, though.

Thanks mr_smartepants! :)

Re: USB-flash-drive drivers progressive bloating?

null@example.com (mr_smartepants) — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 16:17:28 +0000

Well, true to a point. Each version of windows had a different way of caching drivers. Each has a "driver store".
They only get loaded to RAM when needed. But they do take up HDD space until purged.

USB-flash-drive drivers progressive bloating?

null@example.com (twipley) — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 13:29:10 +0000

Hey, this is just a simple question about driver functioning in Windows that I thought of asking here. It has been on my mind for some time.

Each time one inserts a new device -- say, microphone, flash drive, or even wireless mouse -- in a USB port, Windows installs something for you, right? My question is, is those things that get installed remain loaded on every startup, so that, over time, say half-a-hundred different peripherals have been plugged in at least once, would it somehow get to speed down Windows a little bit? Wouldn't all those installed device drivers have to get loaded into RAM on each startup just in case previously connected USB devices get connected back in again -- so as to offer them instant functionality --?

How does that work?

twipley

EDIT: typos.