Gaming Windows XP Service Pack 3 Install Problems

[RebelX]

Alright, so after putting off installing Service Pack 3 for a long while (maybe a month or so), I finally decided to install it. What a mistake that was. The install was going fine, until about 3 minutes into the installation I get a freakin' BARRAGE of "Application Error" messages. Stuff like, "something.exe is messed up so you have to close it," or something like that. Many of them, I had realized, were processes. I had to hit "OK" for about a million messages, and when I had the chance I canceled the installation. My computer sat there for about 30 minutes so I decided to just unplug the damn thing and restart it. I booted it up, and thanks to the Lord I had made a restore point about a couple hours before I installed that CRAP Microsoft calls an update. Now, to my question:

How the hell do I update to Service Pack 3 without fucking up my hard drive?


Thanks for any help...