Ok I fixed the problem but I didn't have to install the kernel. What I did was run the liveCD, added the system partition to fstab, then in the command line, ran # sudo fsck /dev/sda1. The program cleaned some system blocks, and I was able to mount the partition in the the /media folder. I checked the folder and all the partitions system folders were available.

The crazy thing is, this was my first attempt at recovering a linux system...weird