Debian Configuration :: Kernel Modules Won't Load Anymore

After a hiatus I found my machine to be down, but upon turning it on I get significant errors and dropped into emergency mode (see below). This machine wasn't very up-to-date to begin with, so I'm having difficulty determining the order in which to proceed. A couple naive checks and updates on my part are not working. The file system appears to be intact enough to "cd" around and "ls" to see that my files are all (seemingly) there. But the kernel modules aren't loading which is, you know, a problem.

The state I find it in is that it will begin booting to Linux 3.2 (which I know is no longer supported in testing, see below where I tried to update to 3.16), but fails quickly and puts me into emergency mode

Loading, please wait...
megasas: INIT adapter done
systemd[1]: Failed to insert module 'autofs4'
systemd[1]: Failed to open /dev/autofs: No such file or directory
systemd[1]: Failed to initialize automounter: No such file or directory
systemd[1]: Failed to set up automount Arbitrary Executable File Formats File System Automount Point.

...Then several drives show up as clean....

Running "journalctl -xb" shows that it can't mount the module even though it's there on the disk:
... systemd-modules-load[259]: could not open moddep file '/lib/modules/3.2.0-4-amd64/modules.dep.bin'
... systemd-modules-load[259]: Failed to lookup alias 'firewire-sbp2': Function not implemented
... systemd-modules-load[259]: could not open modeep file '/lib/modules/3.2.0-4-amd64/modules.dep.bin'
... systemd-modules-load[259]: Failed to lookup alias 'loop': Function not implemented

And yet, if I 'ls' that modules.dep.bin file, it's right where it's supposed to be, for the appropriate architecture and everything.

After that (in the journalctl output), it shows several things start up, but systemd-modules-load.service fails:
.. systemd[1]: systemd-modules-load.service: main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
.. systemd[1]: systemd-modules-load.service: Failed to start Load Kernel Modules

...and lots of things fail from systemd-udevd: failed to execute '/lib/udev/socket:@/org/freedesktop/hal/udev_ev_event': No such file directory.

"uname -a" shows
Linux <my hostname> 3.2.0-4-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 3.2.32-1 x86_64 GNU/Linux

I tried updating via apt to the Linux 3.16.0 kernel, but grub wasn't finding it in a way that effects the boot process, and no appropriate "vmlinuz-" file appears with the others on the boot partition. So, I tried switching to grub2 but the update-grub command produces many errors.... For now, grub2 still (attempts to) load the old kernel (3.2) with the same results as I was getting with the old grub-legacy.

Regarding the module-loading features, running "lsmod" shows about 30 lines:

Module
ext3
mbcache
jbd
dm_mod
usbhid
hid

[Code] ....

...I'm at the limit of what I know to check and/or try.