I'm in a dilly of a pickle installing Leopard!

[glass]

OK, I did it. Like a lot of other people, I tried to install an upgrade DVD on a mac it wasn't meant for. I got the disc for my MBP, but I still haven't used it, so I figured I'd get some use out of it and slap it on my MacBook.

 

I got the 'can't find 10.4 on this computer' error I've read about in forums (yes, I did some research before bugging you guys .

Those forum posts said to just get a retail copy of Leopard and pop it in, and all will be well. So I obtained a retail copy dmg and burned it on a DVD+R DL. Worked like a charm!

 

Except that for some reason, the install wants me to do a fresh install. When I click on the hard drive, it tells me I can't use that hard drive, I'd have to erase everything first. This is a major problem for me, since I didn't back anything up before I did this. Stupid, agreed, but I thought it was going to be a routine install, badda bing badda boom style.

 

I've tried to hold down T and go in from my MacBook Pro, but it tells me the hard drive is damaged and it can't access all of the information. Anyone who's done this before knows that this message always pops up. Always has for me anyways, and I've never had a problem.

 

So I can't install Leopard because I'll lose my files. And I can't get the files off because I only have access to things like the Library folder, and the Applications folder, etc. through my MBP.

 

I have an external hard drive... is there any way to dump the entire hard drive from the MacBook onto it without being able to boot it?

 

If anyone has any advice it would be greatly appreciated. There's a LOT on that computer, and I'd hate to see that all go away with one click.

 

Thanks in advance!