Newly Upgraded Windows 7 Won't Boot

[nigeynige]

I tried to upgrade my Vista laptop to the Windows 7 RC (build 7100). The upgrade seemed to work fine, but it wouldn't accept my key, since I'd already used it on my desktop PC. Stupidly, I couldn't be bothered trying to get another legit key from microsoft, so I decided to download a "Windows 7 Activation Utility". I'm paying dearly for it now, though, as it won't boot past a black screen with a little flashing grey typing cursor in the top left. I tried system restore and startup repair a few times, to no avail.

It's an Acer Aspire 5920G model laptop with a bit of a dodgy dvd drive, which won't read a lot of disks. Hence why it wouldn't work when I tried to use an Ubuntu live boot CD to recover my files. I also tried booting Damn Small Linux from a USB drive to copy them across, but I couldn't find any way to access files except the ones on the USB stick.

I promise as soon as I've sorted this nightmare out I'll order a real copy of Windows 7. I've learned my lesson about downloading dubiously legal software. All I really need is a few work documents I didn't back up. After I have them, I can reformat or whatever and not worry about it. What can I do to get them back?

[EzyStvy]

Pull the hard drive out and attach it to a USB enclosure and hook it up to another computer...While crossing finger and praying alot see if you can find the files you want to save.

[nigeynige]

Do I need to use an adapter or can I just connect the laptop HDD to my desktop?

Never mind, it connected fine. Cheers.