How to recover from a broken upgrade

Hi,

I have a computer with Win2000 and Debian Linux on it (x86 system). So I saw that there is a new stable release and I followed the instructions on the main Debian web site for upgrading.

However, I do not think it quite worked. For example, I am supposed to type:

aptitude purge kernel-image-2.6-386

But that fails and I get something like:
/var/lib/dpkg/info/libgstreamer-gconf0.8-0.prerm: line 1: gconftool-2: command not found.
Then it says something bad happened while installing packages, and recovers.

I have tried to use aptitute to get rid of libgstreamer etc but it always gives me the above. I can reboot the system and log in as root and it seems to say its the new version as far as I can figure it out. Though of course the GNOME gui log in screen doesnt come up anymore (just the root login).

I am not an experienced Linux user, I just tinker with it every so often out of curiosity.
I do not care about losing data on the Linux partition or accidentally mucking it up so I am open to trying suggestions. I mostly care about breaking grub and not losing the other windows partition.

Is there a way to fix this (if so, please give detailed instructions)?

Is there a way in Debian to reinstall without having to delete or format any partitions since that may break grub (which as far as I can tell is isntalled on my Windows boot partition, I cant find the grub config file anywhere, not on the lines drive or the swap on or windows but grubs works fine). Or some way to say "forcibly get rid of anything old, give me the right kernel and the basics that I need".

Also, how do I get the gnome loging screen back? lol

Any help would be greatly apprecaited. And no, Im a brunet, not a blond.