Need Help With Factory Reinstall Backup Files

Had to do a factory reinstall since last week's Vista updates totally crashed my system. I've heard from three people I know personally who experienced the same problem. Obviously Microsoft has a problem with those updates. Anyway, after the factory reinstall should I delete the backup files of my old system created during the reinstall? If I don't could those files cause conflicts with the new install? Had to reinstall all software too so I'm concerned about a lot of duplicate files hanging out there.

I've spent hours getting this system up and running again and don't want blow it all if I should delete those backup files.:cry

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!