[Sussex] failing hard drive - how do I boot the replacement ?

[John D.]

Hi list,

Current hdd seems to be failing (loud squealing noise>GUI stops>root partition 
errors listed in console login).

So I've managed (with lots of assistance from Dave C) get another one 
installed, and by using the Gparted live CD copy the data from the old drive 
to the new one (plus expand the partitions on the new one as it's larger than 
the old one).

The problem seems to be grub. All the files seem to be copied over but the new 
drive (now /dev/hda) won't boot. If I try grub-install from the old drive and 
tell it to install to the new drive, it says that /dev/hdb1 has no matching 
BIOS drive (I've no idea what that means as the hard drives seem to show up 
on the initial BIOS screen), if I change the BIOS setting for the system to 
boot from the first drive (i.e. hdd -0 rather than -1 presuming that -0 is 
the new hda drive and -1 is the older, now hdb drive), I get lines/columns of 
GRUB (full screen).

If I try to force things one way or another by disconnecting the older hard 
drive - I get told that theres a boot disk failure and to insert a system 
disk and hit enter.

Having looked at the obvious places for info on how this might be achieved I'm 
getting no where.

Can anyone explain how I might sort this ? Or point me toward idiot proof 
instructions somewhere ?

regards

John D.