[Sussex] Centos 6 64bit no longer bootable

[Brendan Whelan]

I have just built a Centos 6.4 64-bit system on a, relatively old, Dell 
server. Having got through the installation of the operating system and 
configured our package, I changed the default screen backgrounds to 
those used on other servers. I logged out but the screen just ( from 
memory) showed a white line and the word "Centos". I therefore powered 
off and back on again but now get the message "ata_id DHIO_GET_IDENTITY 
failed for /dev/sda" it then goes into a kernel panic. Searching on the 
Internet indicates that this could be a disk controller issue.  However 
I can boot, using a DVD, into recovery mode and, for example, check that 
the png background files are in place. ( Just in case there was a bad 
connection I re-bedded cables, boards, etc. )
Is it likely to be a hardware issue and are there any tests that I can 
perform? As it is a new installation I am not concerned about the data 
or files but would like to get the system working.
Thanks, Brendan
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