Solved Boot problem, keyboard not working with HP recovery disks

[dbvogt]

My PC is an HP 700 64 bit with original Windows 7 and the bootloader is bad. I have HP recovery disks but the keyboard does not function after the Windows files are loaded from CD1. There is no recovery partition as there was a HD crash last year and it was replaced. I did recently make a mirror image backup of the drive on a portable USB drive so that looks like the best option for recovery. Will such a backup rebuild everything including the bootloader? I'm familiar with ISO files and dual booted a laptop last year with Ubuntu and W8.1. As a test, I ran Ubuntu without installing on the desktop and the keyboard is fine.

The other alternative is to take the PC in to a shop for repair but that's expensive.

 

[samuria]

Are you using a usb keyboard it may need a ps2 keyboard as it installs the other thing is there an option in the bios something like usb legacy if thats not set it may be the problem depending how far it get does on screen keyboard work?

 

[dbvogt]

Thanks for the reply.
Both the mouse and keyboard are wired and neither work. FWIW I ran a Ubuntu Boot Repair program. It didn't work but it created a file located at Ubuntu Pastebin


I used the same USB memory stick to upgrade an older Ubuntu version to 10.04 on a laptop and it also failed so I had to reinstall Ubuntu in an existing dual boot partition. From some websites, Version 10.04 has a confirmed bug but that doesn't help me rebuilding my W7 bootloader on my desktop.


I've ordered a repair disk and will see if that helps. If I ever buy a PC of laptop with Windows preloaded, I will immediately order a CD/DVD with the operating system. A mirror image does not help without a bootable Disk or flash drive.

 

[samuria]

It's an age old problem that the driver's don't load until you login if you back the reg and set automatic login it will load the driver's when it lots in. It normally only happens if you changed keyboard is if you install with USB then swap to PS2 it won't have drivers

 

[dbvogt]

Problem solved. I didn't wait for a repair disk but had a Windows 10 ISO in case I decide to install that instead of W7. The W10 ISO repaired the boot loader.