need some help for explaning

[denden42]

hello, I just want to hear some explanations to my problem. I'm a 2 years comp. tech already and this is my first time experiencing this problem.
I have a friend and she wants her laptop to be repaired. The keyboard is not working properly so I said reformating might not be the solution to her problem but she said that it works a year ago because it is still the same exact problem she encountered when she bring her laptop to a service center. So because of a limited resources cause I'm in a vacation I just backed up the drivers because I don't have internet here so that it will easier for me to install drivers offline. Without backing up her documents I did the instalation, a dual boot instalation. I decided to dual boot it because its just for testing if it doesn't solve her problem and I can just bring back to the older OS. After the dual booting it did not solve the issue so I tried booting to the older OS but I failed. A BSOD appeared, maybe because a hardware failure of the keyboard, and worst I can't even go to safe mode in the older OS. I want to save the data back. I log in to the newly installed os and go to c:\users\USERNAME\ but nothing is there except the appdata. Where is the my documents, the music, desktop and so on. My friend will get angry with me for sure. What will I explain to her. I really don't know what happen. I did dual booting several times but its my first time in this issue. Can some have an explanation regarding this.

 

[Bubbaleone]

Can you describe the exact steps you took to create this "dual boot" setup you refer to? Did you first create a separate partition to install the second operating system on, or did you install the second operating system on a separate HDD?

.

 

[denden42]

like I always do, I did it on separate partition
I installed it without a dvd/usb, just mount it using daemon tool.

 

[Bubbaleone]

What did you use for creating the dual-boot selection menu? I'm assuming you're referring to Windows 7 and you can't have two operating systems on the same drive without a boot menu to select which operating system to boot from.

 

[denden42]

yea I used win7 and win7 took care that boot menu for me.

 

[pete1229]

Is it me or doesn't this sound like a hardware issue? What does it have to do with the OS? Did you open up the laptop to check if the keyboard connection is firmly in place? Was any liquid spilled on the keyboard? It just seems to me that these are the first steps to consider before assuming the issue can be resolved with reformatting.

 

[cheap5.0]

Does it BSOD everytime you try to boot into the old OS install?

 

[Mushkins]

First mistake was listening to the user when they said "This is exactly the same issue I had X years ago when I took it in and they fixed it." A) The user has no idea what the issue actually was, only the symptoms. B) The user is not the tech who "fixed" it, who knows what they actually did. That information is great, but it doesn't ever replace your own troubleshooting methodologies.

What exactly do you mean by the keyboard is "not working properly." What isn't it doing properly?

What exactly does the BSOD display?