Ubuntu 7.10 upgrade or new install will not boot

[ischis2 at cox.net]

I have a computer that I have used for a very long time.  I tried doing a fresh install the other day and when I couldn't get the install to boot I then tried going back to a previous version and upgrading.  

So I got out my 6.06 version, installed and upgraded through version 7.04.   All went well.   Then I upgradeded to 7.10 at which point I get the same problem as for the fresh install.

What am I supposed to change in the install upgrade?

-------------------- Error -----------------

ACPI:  BIOS 1997 < 2000 
   acpi=force

ata1:00:   cmd  c8/00:08:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/e0  tag 0 cdb 0x0 data 4096 in

ata1.00  exception Emask  0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x2

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