In message , raden
writes
In message , David Lang
writes

As a path of least resistance,

Why not buy another hard disk

When a 200gig HD costs about £65, it's hardly a huge investment

Do your reinstall on the new HD and you can then connect the old HD and
recover what you want

I always use separate HDs for data and programs. That way you don't
suffer from the problems you are having

Oops didn't read the OP properly, did I ?

Still - take your HD out and stick it in the other machine, then you can
just copy the required files across

--
geoff