scary kernel error

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I'm sorry this is a long message, but I want to explain my situation clearly. Your help is greatly appreciated

I am not a very advanced Mac user, and normally with this kind of issue I would go to my local mac dealer support center, or a family friend who is an expert, but the support center is closed for a long weekend and the friend is out of the country.

I was doing a wipe and reinstall as explained here: http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20070507084548849

Everything was going rather well, though as an idiot I put my music and phots onto USB drives to make room for the process (you need 1at least 10 GB free) rather then my important documents. I paniced when it looked like my data was gone, only to realise it was still there under "Previous system" and proceded to replace the new "vanilla" system with the old one by replacing the library etc as directed.

Then I accidently put the previou system's system folder onto the hardrive while the "vanilla" system folder was still there. My laptop froze, showing only the background and the dock with not response drom clicking the mouse etc. I did the only thing I kow how, and restarted my mac. now I am getting a "black screen of death" with a lengthy amount of techno gibberish about th debugger etc with the final message: panic: we are Hanging here

Lovely, now I am really freaking out, I had years worth of important and cherished stuff on there.

I was told by a fellow mac user, though also not an expert, to try to start the computer from the disk and try the process again, but I am hesitant since I am worried it will only make things worse. I think some of the problem may be that I used the install disk that came with my laptop several years ago (it is an Ibook) and since then there have been several upates. Also, It may not know what systems folder etc to start up with. But I know little about these things and am only guessing.

Any advice, guidence or wors of encouragement?
 
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Your Mac's Specs
iMac 17" 1Ghz G4  iPhone 3G  10.5.5
Your kernel panic is, most likely, being caused by merging the System Folders. You'll need to do another Archive and Install. Your important files should be in your home folder and won't be affected.
 

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