ack! help!!!! something went dreadfully wrong!

help!! =( please help =(

i did the entire apt-get upgrade, with dpkg -i --force-
all /var/blah/blah/<package>.deb where appropriate. it updated everything 
without a hitch.

but now i can't really use it!

okay here's what happens. i restarted my machine properly (just cuz i wanted 
to make a nice clean start after it upgraded everything)...

and now i get serious problems. in console mode, it's broadcasting the 
following message every second:

hdb: dma_intr: status=0x51 ( DriveReady SeekComplete Error )
hdb: dma_intr: error=0x40 ( UncorrectablError ), LBAsect=19451923, high=1, 
low=2674707, sector=19451856
end_request: I/O error, dev 03:41 (hdb), sector 19451856


that's spamming my screen every second in console mode. in KDE startup mode 
(automatically where it starts up), it pauses at the loading peripherals part 
of the kde startup window...and then the startup window just goes away, 
leaving the desktop background from the login screen, the arrow, and nothing 
else. nothing is happening, the computer is totally stuck in this loop! what 
can i do?

please help..this is my work/desktop machine...what can i do? obviously 
something went wrong with my upgrade someplace..it was working fine before. =( 
please please help...


thank you,

savanna.

p.s. i'm using webmail because my desktop kmail is obviously not working =( i 
hope this gets through. =(