Restore only part of nandroid image In attempt to install 2.2  I've deleted all my contacts(contacts were saved on phone, not as google contacts) 
I've done full nandroid backup while phone still had those contacts; however when I try restoring image; I get bootloop.
Nandroid backup contains system.img, data.img, cache.img and boot.img;    

I'm wondering if I can restore only data.img to get contacts back.

I have thought of 2 other solutions:   

a) make a new nandroid image of current status; verify that it's ok by doing restart; then open copy database with contacts from one backup to another.

b) open database with contacts from data.img; and manually retype 200 phone records.

Is there any smarter (quicker, easier) way??
Clockworkmod recovery has an 'Advanced Restore' option that allows you to pick just one of the following partitions:
boot
system
data
cache
sd-ext

If you don't already have it, download ROM Manager from the market and this will help you install the clockworkmod recover.

(I've no idea whether this will solve your problem, but yes you can restore the data partition! ;) )