Big SPR RC uninstall problems...

Hi guys - I have a pretty big problem here and i hope you can give me a hand!

I installed the SP1 release candidate for the 64bit version of windows vista ultimate in decemeber. Everything seemed fine, but recently i noticed a few problems which i wasn't sure were there before the installation so I decided to remove it.
After uninstalling it required a restart and on restarting it went through thre steps successfully then a screen came up which seemed to indicate it was reorganising files or something, but when is came to something like the 20000th file it crashed...i had no choice but to turn the laptop off.
Subsequently it wouldn't boot up...it said it was missing a file. I found my windows installation disc and tried to fix the error...it came up with "windows is unable to fix this error automatically". I then tried a system restore...after sucessfully initialising and restoring files, the restore tool appeared to stick on the "finalizing restore" for hours...I decided that was not working and turned it off.

What are my options? I need to get my files off my hard drive...is there a simple way of doing that? Then i can just reinstall windows. Or do you know of something i could do via the command prompt to rectify issues? Thanks!!

 

Try using a GParted Live CD to just copy the partition(s) over to another drive, then extracting the data with another computer.

Or, use a Linux LiveCD (if possible) to just copy the raw data.

Actually, the repair console in Vista should be able to copy files. Attach an external drive and copy everything to the other drive.

Or, pull your drive out, use an external enclosure, and copy to another computer.

In any event, you'll probably need to ask a friend to help you copy/store data for a bit.