got it working. the hd was reporting errors in conjunction with a partially faulty (intermittent memory) video card.
I was getting partially booted to the point it would tell me there were errors and then the video would usually crash right about then. I a little confusing you see...
replaced the card and learned to run fsck to fix the filesys
love it!

i just need to stop leaving the house and stay home and learn linux
thanks for all the support. This is amazing!