Key board and track pad not working

Question

Ok, My situation is similar to some of the other things posted but not quite.
I tried to wake my computer up from sleep the other day and it wouldn't "wake up" so I did a hard shut down and restart. When it restarted the key board and track pad did not work. The caps lock light wouldn't come on or anything. I tried connecting a usb apple keyboard and mouse and those didn't work either.
When switching to windows in bootcamp, everything works. So... I guess that means it's a software thing.
I called Apple support and we did all the possible key combinations and restarts possible and it came down to this: I need to archive install tiger again, then install all of the updates, then install leopard back on (I don't have leopard disk because it was a family pack and im at college). My roomate's macbook (White, bought in aug 2008) install disks which are 10.5.2 do not work with my computer.
My question is: Is this really the correct solution to my problem? Will archiving and installing tiger then leopard affect my files? I haven't backed up using time machine in a month, so is there a way to backup through osx with my keyboard and trackpad not working or can I do a good back up through my windows partition in bootcamp? Any more tips? Thanks, this has never happened before and I guess I'm a little clueless.

Answer 1

Do you have access to another Mac? If so, possibly you could use Firewire Target Disk Mode to access your drive and do a current Time Machine backup:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661
Since you have a family pack of Leopard at home, possibly you could have someone burn a safety copy of it and send it to you so that you can reinstall Leopard. Once you have the OS installed and brought up to date, you could even restore from Time Machine if you had to.
Since we don't know all the steps you took, it's hard for any of us to say if this is the right solution. Evidently the Apple tech came to the conclusion that your software had become corrupted, and this could well be the case, since everything works on the Windows partition. Hence the suggestion to reinstall the OS.
I think you need to get a copy of the Leopard disc so that you can bring your OS completely up to date. I'm not sure of the logistics of doing an Archive and Install with both Tiger and Leopard, especially if much of your work has been done on Leopard. I'm not even sure if it's necessary to reinstall Tiger--it might be better to just reinstall Leopard using Archive and Install.
It's always a good idea to have a good up to date backup like Time Machine before attempting an Archive and Install, because things can go wrong. If they do, you may end up having to do an erase and install. If that happens, you can restore from your Time Machine backup.
I think what you should do is to get a copy of your Leopard disc, and then boot from it and try to do the Archive and Install. Navigate to Disk Utility first and verify both permissions and the disk and repair if necessary. Then proceed with the Archive and Install. Once you're done, run all the updates. Then go to Disk Utility and repair permissions.
Good luck!