can't install Ubuntu 11.10 from USB disk

Ok, so i was running Ubuntu 11.04, and I found it was quite buggy, so when I was prompted to upgrade to 11.10, I enthusiastically hit the "ok" button, but towards the very end of the installation my battery died. After I rebooted I noticed that my new OS was very, very screwed up! I couldn't see many files or folders in many of my directories/folders. Neither the "show hidden files" option nor 'Ctrl + H' fixed this. Also my folders/files on my desktop would continuously disappear; I couldn't "split screen" view folders, etc... So after backing up important files to an SDcard, i attempted to do a fresh installation of 11.10. I DL'd the standard .iso file, made a start-up disk from USB, edited my notebook's BIOS, then booted into 11.10 from a mSDcard + card reader plugged into my USB port. After booting up into 11.10 I chose the option to "TRY" it and everything seemed fine ...so i then tried the "Install Ubuntu" option and from there I chose the 'wipe/fresh installation' option (or wutever its called) But here's where it starts to go bad: Towards the end of the installation I received an error that read similar to this: "an attempt to update 'apt' in order to install additional packages failed" (not sure bout the "update part". Maybe "verify, sync, install, upgrade, etc.... Who knows.) I did make sure that I had a good internet connection ...I also checked the boxes to install 3rd party apps, and download updates during installation. (sorry, typing from memory) Anyway, after completion of installation, o chose the reboot system option (u didn't think to default my BIOS first) ....so after it booted back onto USB, I edited my BIOS, and rebooted again ...but this time it just hanged on a blank screen with the curser blinking in the top left corner. Since then I've tried reinstalling and rebooting dozens of times, but the result wad always the same. I could boot into USB, but not my Hard Disk So i tried downloading another .iso file from another Ubuntu version but am always told that i don't have enough memory (days I only have 10.3MB) ...even tho I had almost 8GB left on my card! So i chose option "other" to try and partition my drive myself -even tho i have no clue as to how to do that- and i see that my ext.4 is completely full (158GB), and the last tiny bit was full with swap. Ext.3 was also filled, but how much, I can't remember (30% maybe). My '/' was completely empty and the screen option said it was "undefined" ...I think was the term used. And lastly, I noticed that lately I can't even boot the option "Try". afterwards, now that screen also hangs on the blank screen w blinking curser. So now the only thing I can do is boot Ubuntu from USB to see the install options, but if I choose either one. The screen goes blank. Note: on 11.04, for the last fee months, I was always receiving errors that I didn't have "enough free swap" so i guess my memory's been Macedonia for a while, buy shouldn't that have all been wiped when i chose to fresh install 11.04? So can anyone help me? As I'm sure u can all tell, I'm not very "tech" savvy! I was thinking bout using my brothers Mac to make another start-up disk on USB but figured I'd wait for a response from the community fitst. ....I just wanna get back to theming android!;) Note: my laptop doesn't have a cd drive in case that hasn't already been inferred.

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