Thanks

I used https://www.reddit.com/r/Electrum/comments/7cjjpg/electrum_synchronizing_message_on_tails/dpqflmh/ and now have my wallet back in sync.

phew.

I also found the problem with my seed - i was misreading a lower case u as an a.  twat i think the word is.  writing down key info is all very well unless your handwriting is nearly unreadable.  maybe time to type and print some of this stuff.

Now to try again at creating a new tails instance.  my usb drives are now showing up on my mac but will not appear on windows (disk management will see them but not format)

That's effectively what I'm trying to do.  I can't update Electrum on the version of Tails i'm on so i need to restore from my seed on a new installation.

When i install from the seed the wallet shows as empty (see my first post).

I'm running an electrum 2.7.9 on (an old version of) Tails and I'm getting some problems.  I've tried to create a new up to date Tails install but not having much success. 

---2.7.9 wallet won't complete sync.
I've tried manually choosing servers but it just sits on 'syncronizing'.  The last few transactions look "wrong" - the balance doesnt make sense

I've tried using the seed to create a new wallet
- on 2.7.9 i enter my seed and have to select 'BIP39' before it will let me proceed
A new wallet is created and syncs but shows with a zero balance

- on mac OS
When I select BIP39 i get a warning
"BIP39 seeds can be imported, but we do not generate....etc)"
it also shows that the BIP39 checksum fails? WTF?

In both cases i've left the BIP44 as default (is there something esle I can try here?)
Again, it syncs but shows a  zero balance

Have I been ripped off somehow?