well i can't remember what the update program was but i think it was one of the default ones, i remember ubuntu stopped working after i updated that but i assumed that was because i installed the steam client before i rebooted, i think i installed monodevelop or something before i updated mint, i guess i should avoid installing anything after updating until i reboot

That would be a good idea.

It is possible to Mint with no network connection. It is better to have one, if possible.
I successfully installed Mint 13 to my external usb 500 GB hard drive.

Check to see if Secure Boot is enabled in your BIOS. If it is, disable it.
If you are booting with the usb hard drive and the usb flash drive both plugged in, make sure that the hard drive is first in the boot sequence.

ok i'll give it a try

i can't seam to find a secure boot option in my bios,

Secure Boot was introduced in late 2011, so if your computer is older than that, you don't have it. In that case, I apologize for wasting your time with that. When you said you have an intel quad core, I assumed you had Secure Boot.

Please boot your live Mint DVD or usb, open a terminal and enter the command:
inxi -v7 -xz
Post the result so that we can see what you have.

ok i'll give it a wirl

sorry about my absence lately, been moving around so my main pc was unavailable for a while but i'm back now

here are the results

mint@mint ~ $ inxi -v7 -xz
System: Host: mint Kernel: 3.13.0-24-generic x86_64 (64 bit, gcc: 4.8.2) Desktop: Gnome Distro: Linux Mint 17 Qiana
Machine: Mobo: ASUSTeK model: P5P43TD PRO version: Rev X.0x Bios: American Megatrends version: 0402 date: 08/05/2009
CPU: Quad core Intel Core2 Quad CPU Q8300 (-MCP-) cache: 2048 KB flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 20001.3
Clock Speeds: 1: 2003.00 MHz 2: 2003.00 MHz 3: 2003.00 MHz 4: 2003.00 MHz
Graphics: Card: NVIDIA GK106 [GeForce GTX 660] bus-ID: 01:00.0
X.Org: 1.15.1 drivers: (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) FAILED: nouveau Resolution: 1920x1080@60.0hz
GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on NVE6 GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 10.1.0 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio: Card-1: NVIDIA GK106 HDMI Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 01:00.1
Card-2: Creative Labs Device 0012 driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 04:00.0
Card-3: Intel 82801JI (ICH10 Family) HD Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ver: k3.13.0-24-generic
Network: Card: Qualcomm Atheros AR8121/AR8113/AR8114 Gigabit or Fast Ethernet driver: ATL1E port: dc00 bus-ID: 02:00.0
IF: eth0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
WAN IP: <filter> IF: eth0 ip: <filter> ip-v6: <filter>
Drives: HDD Total Size: 504.2GB (1.2% used) 1: USB id: /dev/sda model: External_USB_3.0 size: 500.1GB serial: 231842044CEE-0:0 temp: 0C
2: USB id: /dev/sdb model: U3_Cruzer_Micro size: 4.1GB serial: 000018519471E53D-0:0 temp: 0C
Optical: /dev/sr0 model: N/A rev: N/A dev-links: cdrom
Features: speed: 48x multisession: yes audio: yes dvd: yes rw: cd-r,cd-rw,dvd-r,dvd-ram state: N/A
Partition: ID: / size: 3.9G used: 57M (2%) fs: overlayfs dev: /dev//cow label: N/A uuid: N/A
ID: /cdrom size: 3.9G used: 1.3G (35%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sdb1 label: UUI uuid: 0E8A-7D86
ID: /media/mint/f1dc1c70-fbe8-45c6-a235-d4bbdc099eba size: 451G used: 4.2G (1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
label: N/A uuid: f1dc1c70-fbe8-45c6-a235-d4bbdc099eba
ID: swap-1 size: 8.59GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda5
label: N/A uuid: 0b50c1b0-2a75-4596-a88c-aaae76d28ac6
RAID: System: supported: N/A
No RAID devices detected - /proc/mdstat and md_mod kernel raid module present
Unused Devices: none
Unmounted: ID: /dev/sr0 size: 1.07G label: N/A uuid: N/A
ID: /dev/sr1 size: 0.01G label: N/A uuid: N/A
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 34.0C mobo: 30.0C gpu: 32.0
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: 1928 psu: 1308 sys-1: 0
Info: Processes: 178 Uptime: 3 min Memory: 588.4/7984.8MB Runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.8.2 Client: Shell inxi: 1.8.4
mint@mint ~ $

well i hope this helps :S also i bought a usb shaped like a pack of doublemint gum, its not really relivent to me fixing linux but i thought it would be funny to keep a linux mint live boot on it X3

so when i get this os fixed i can back it up incase something goes wrong right?

You may want to keep a record of any major customisations you make etc.
Provided you backup your data (many ways of doing this), it's generally easier to just do a fresh install of the mint system.

yeah but at the moment i still don't know how to fix grub, and from the sounds of it the error is due to the wrong version of grub being installed when linux mint installs, so i'd probobly have to fix the error each time i did a fresh reinstall

so can anyone help? just i've been using a live boot for ages and i'm just getting sick of grub not working. its really discoraging me from wanting to use linux if it fails before it even boots up

reran boot repair and got this url http://paste2.org/Any2H9BJ will try rebooting and seeing if it worked