vista won't boot after 1/8/08 update

I just installed several updates to my premium vista x64 machine, q6600, 2gb ram, 8800gt, asus p5n-e sli mobo. they didn't install correctly as i had to reboot when it was "installing teh updates" when i shut down the computer because it was frozen in a loop for about an hour.

so, i restarted several times and got the computer to boot. everything seemed normal, but then every few seconds the cpu usage on core 1 spiked to about 70-80% and everything freezes for about half-to-one second, making the thing almost unusable.

so today i looked in the auto update panel in vista to see if there was anything i hadn't done. there were two updates, one for office 07 (like 200mb) and one was vista x64 update, but nothing specific (if it helps, the update was published jan. 8th if i remember seeing it correctly). so i just clicked update, it downloaded the files, asked me to restart, and I did. only now it doesn't boot AT ALL. when i select "start windows normally" or "last known good config" it just loops on the black screen with the horizontally scolling status bar. if i select any safe mode it hard freezes after loading the boot files and says "please wait."

please someone help, i need files off the computer even if I have to format.

on a side note, i have two rapotor 74gb hdd that i couldn't get to raid together (thank god now) and i think the files i need are on the second (d: ) drive without the os.... if i just format c: is there a chance i could get d: back to at least copy some files?

That should work but if it does not then install either Vista or XP to another drive. Then put the drive with your files on it in the PC but not as the boot drive. Copy needed files. Or else put the drive in another PC with an existing OS on it and do the same.