Mac keeps freezing while installing OS X

I have had my Macbook for about a year and sic months now with NO problems at all, for the past month it kept freezing, i could not force quit anything, i had to shut off and restart it, programs were always "quitting unexpectedly". About a week ago i installed some updates and when i restarted it never booted back up just stayed at the boot up screen with the apple and the wheel. I booted in safe mode and did some disk repairs and when i restarted it worked but kept freezing, at least 5 times a day, until 2 days ago when it would not boot, would not go in safe mode, would not do anything.

So i decided to boot from my Leopard OS X CD and do an "archive and install keeping users and nework settings". It froze an hour into it, so i shut it off and tried again, this time it got all the way to the end and froze again. So now i lost all my files and folders which i NEED for my exams coming up (I know i should of put them on my usb but i did not).

What the hell is going on? I never had a problem and now the problems just dont stop! Im in the process of doing an "Erase and install" now but i was wondering if there is anything i can do to get my files back.

Thanks!