Well, it's taken a LOT of false starts.
But last week, I found a great deal on a new hard drive - 80 Gigs for $30. So I figured "Why not??"
I replaced the 6 gig drive in the 10 year old computer and attempted to load Linux on it several times, only to be confronted with errors.
I finally got smart (stupid, whatever). I loaded the basics on the syste, and everything came up normal, with no errors. So with my trusty installation disks, I managed to do an additional install that "updated" my first installation.
To make a long story .... well, long, I'm up and running with Suse 9.3 Professional.
And I'm sooooooooooooo happy!!!!
(Apparently, I'm also a geek. *sigh* So sue me.
)