T61p - Unable to boot/ Reinstall & Recover after driver updates

I applied Vista SP2 for Ultimate 32-bit a few days back & system booted normally.

Immediately after that, I downloaded & applied a few driver updates from Lenovo (Intel AMT, Display, HDD, Finger Print, etc.)

When I rebooted the machine, I got an error message (forgot the exact words) & to use Renstall & Recover disc.

When I reinstalled my machine with R&R, I get a message "The computer restarted unexpectedly or encountered an unexpected error. Windows installation cannot proceed. To install Windows, click OK to restart the computer, and then restart the installation."

I've reinstalled my system several times (7-8) since then & I still get the same message.
1.) What is the best way to reinstall my system?
2.) Can I recover my data? The data was kept in a non-system created folder in the root drive. c:\xxx

I went through several posts on this & other forums for a possible solution with no luck. Can Knoppix or utilities in Hiren's boot CD help? I've 2-3 yrs old version.

Can I pay Lenovo to fix it if I'm out of warranty? I need to my data recovered.

Thanks for your time.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=385689