Loaded Redhat 7.1, all was well.

Text only login, all was well.

-Because i'm new to this, after I was in, a line resembling this appeared: (chris@system....) $

-I'm not sure what to do at this point.....

Now here's the point i'm at now. I get this when I start up my computer, after I see green 'OK's:

"Checking root filesystem
/ Contains a file system with
errors, check forced
/:

Inode 225697 has illegal block(s)

/: Unexpected Inconsistency; Run fsck Manually.
(i.e., without -a or -p options)

*** An Error occurred during the file system check.
***Dropping you to a shell; the system will reboot
***when you leave the shell

Give root password for maintenance
(or type Control-D for normal startup):"

First type your root password to enter single user mode.
Then run cat /etc/fstab and find out which partition is your / partition.
Something like /dev/hda1.
Now run e2fsck /dev/hda1
This will run a manual file check. You will be asked a series of questions about what to do with the errors found. Standard answers usually work well.

Guess that you didn't shut down the computer correctly first time.
Run halt from the command line to shutdown computer.

When the filesystem check is done type exit.