Vista upgrade fail trying to not delete contents of hard drive!

[smp]

Hi

I tried to upgrade my existing Vista with an upgrade so I could keep my existing programs and files. The reinstall was progressing ok and then I got a blank screen for an hour or so, assuming the reinstall was complete I turned the computer off but alas this wasn't the case. Now everytime I boot up I get the windows install failed message and to restart and reinstall. Of course this process just loops but if I load the installation CD from boot I only have the option to reinstall a clean version, ie loosing all my programmes and data. Is there a way I can either roll back the reinstall, access my HDD so I can move all the data to an external HD before doing a clean install or access the upgrade install option (this is ghosted out during the boot from CD, stating I need to do this through windows which I obviously can't!).

The reason for the upgrade was that a) the computer was getting really slow and b)I couldn't install most applications due to a 'side by side configuration' error message and thought this was due to a manual registry deleting effort on my behalf trying to remove traces of a prorgramme I was trying to reinstall that was having problems...

Help!

many thanks

ps I have a Dell XPS m1530 laptop

 

[Bodaggit23]

You could try creating a new partition and installing there, hoping your old data will still remain in the original partition.

 

[smp]

I did think about that, how would I create a partition without getting into windows?

 

[Bodaggit23]

I did think about that, how would I create a partition without getting into windows?

Booting from the install disc.

Choose Custom Install. The advanced options will be there at that point.