OK - seems like i figured it all out…
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run the link above in destroy mode (it’ll fail for some random error but not before it makes the partitions)
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run the link above but without destroy (now that partitions are made it’ll do whatever it needs to so that it can load the OS back)
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follow the insructions for the swap partition and it works
I know - not very technical but it worked
I now bought a $77 2TB hdd and still found a use for the shell… Win all around…