Ubuntu Installation :: Screen Resolution Crashed - Could Not See The Right Part Of The Same "nvidia" Window

I was wandering around the system parameters and saw that there was an option to activate a non-open nvidia driver for my Asus Emachine EL1200 with Ubuntu 8.04 install (pre-installed, worked fine for a year now). So I did. However, when I restarted, my screen resolution was changed to 800*600 or so, no good. Although I could not see the right part of the same "nvidia" window, I managed to deactivate the driver. Regretfully when restarting the screen resolution was still 800*600. I thought it was 1440*900 for my Asus VK192S-B (checked it on internet) but it didn't work (did not check the refreshrate at that time). So I stared to fiddle around and stupidly accepted a 1280 * 800. As I said before the resolution is completely f***up now. I have about 4 copies of my desktop and the worst part is there are lines over it and I can not see what the windows say. I manage to get the resolution config screen, but can not get the right optios selected, working "blindfolded".

I looked at this helpful forum and identified the /etc/x11/xorg.conf file as the important file. Also I saw a xorg.conf.failsafe file with my original config! With the recovery cd of Asus I managed o set up a live session and actually can open the xorg.conf file and see the damned line with 1280*800. Regretfully the original /etc folder as well as the original home folder cannot be written in, or copied. Permission problems, as could be expected. I have some backup, but not of quite a lot of photos I uploadd from my camera recently. Reinstalling from scratch is fo the moment not an option.