Error while updating to sarge .

[Spencer <infotechsys@pivot.net>]

Hi,
Before getting to error question I would like to 
find another method in the way I'm trying to
update to sarge. What I do now is change my
sources.list file, then run apt-get update and
finally run apt-get -u dist-upgrade. Then once 
process fails I reload my woody version from
the cd I burnt and start all over again. The reason 
for this procedure is that my old system is 
screwed-up. It there another way?
Ok, on my last attempt I got this error -

error were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/nano_1.2.4-2.i386.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg return an error Code (1).
What should I have done to solve the problem?
TIA.
Wayne