Update from 9.10 froze; broken pkgs

[CovenStine]

I'm working on an old friend's computer, something got corrupted, so it sat for a while and had an awful lot of updates to do. I instinctively said OK, but the net installer for 10.04 froze.
I let it sit for an hour, just to see if it would make it; after a hard restart, it wouldn't start. Booting with an alternate install CD in the drive allowed it to start.
Now however, there are four broken packages: libc6-dev, libc-dev-bin, upstart, and mountall.
I can't seem to force Synaptic to work with only those four packages, and because they're broken, the updater won't work.

Suggestions?

I'm still very much a beginner in the realm, just so you know and I don't come back with 'huh?'

Thanks in advance, y'all.

[bondo101]

Try a clean install with a cd versus a up grade sounds you got a bad up grade over the internet . Clean off the drive , set the computer to boot from the cd distro of 9.10 if you have it if not get one. Upgrades are always glitchey unless ya got a T1 line connected to your computer . Good internet comnnection for up grades . i did a clean install with 9.10 no problems . then I did the up grade to 10.04 it sucked terribly. went back to 9.10 still happy. just trying to help bondo101

[CovenStine]

Thanks.
I was hoping not to deep six it, but after I read your suggestion, it turns out that the issues were deeper than I expected: the harddrive was failing, causing all the issues. Sorry I didn't realize it before. Thanks!