Thanks for the idea, but I don't think so.
The system was going thru a lot of devices, I think it did the optical drive and then it tried the hard drive.
I don't have another drive to try . But I had problems with 2 different disks, the Widnows restore DVD AND the System Recovery CD.
Here is a longer excerpt from the boot messages.
Errors in bold
...
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:13.2
-> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 19
ehci_hcd 0000:00:13.2: EHCI Host Controller
ehci_hcd 0000:00:13.2: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
ehci_hcd 0000:00:13.2: irq 19, io mem 0xfe02c000
ehci_hcd 0000:00:13.2: USB 2.0 started, EHCI 1.00, driver 10 Dec 2004
usb usb1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
hub 1-0:1.0: 8 ports detected
116x: driver isp116x-hcd, 03 Nov 2005
ohci_hcd: 2006 August 04 USB 1.1 'Open' Host Controller (OHCI) Driver
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:13.0 -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 19
ohci_hcd 0000:00:13.0: OHCI Host Controller
ohci_hcd 0000:00:13.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2
ohci_hcd 0000:00:13.0: irq 19, io mem 0xfe02e000
usb usb2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
hub 2-0:1.0: USB hub found
hub 2-0:1.0: 4 ports detected
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:13.1 -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 19
ohci_hcd 0000:00:13.1: OHCI Host Controller
ohci_hcd 0000:00:13.1: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 3
ohci_hcd 0000:00:13.1: irq 19, io mem 0xfe02d000
usb usb3: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
hub 3-0:1.0: USB hub found
hub 3-0:1.0: 4 ports detected
USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver v3.0
sl811: driver sl811-hcd, 19 May 2005
Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
usb 2-4: new full speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 2
usb 2-4: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
scsi6 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
USB Mass Storage support registered.
usb-storage: device found at 2
usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
PNP: PS/2 Controller [PNP0303:PS2K,PNP0f13:PS2M] at 0x60,0x64 irq 1,12
serio: i8042 KBD port at 0x60,0x64 irq 1
serio: i8042 AUX port at 0x60,0x64 irq 12
mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard as /class/input/input1
usbcore: registered new interface driver hiddev
usbcore: registered new interface driver usbhid
drivers/hid/usbhid/hid-core.c: v2.6:USB HID core driver
TCP cubic registered
Initializing XFRM netlink socket
NET: Registered protocol family 1
NET: Registered protocol family 17
powernow-k8: Found 1 AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3500+ processors (1 cpu cores) (version 2.00.00)
powernow-k8: 0 : fid 0xe (2200 MHz), vid 0x6
powernow-k8: 1 : fid 0xc (2000 MHz), vid 0x8
powernow-k8: 2 : fid 0xa (1800 MHz), vid 0xa
powernow-k8: 3 : fid 0x2 (1000 MHz), vid 0x12
Using IPI No-Shortcut mode
Magic number: 9:851:492
Freeing unused kernel memory: 372k freed
Write protecting the kernel read-only data: 1922k
mount used greatest stack depth: 2772 bytes left
device-mapper: ioctl: 4.11.0-ioctl (2006-10-12) initialised: dm-devel@redhat.com
md: raid0 personality registered for level 0
md: raid1 personality registered for level 1
async_tx: api initialized (async)
xor: automatically using best checksumming function: pIII_sse
pIII_sse : 6684.000 MB/sec
xor: using function: pIII_sse (6684.000 MB/sec)
raid6: int32x1 898 MB/s
raid6: int32x2 929 MB/s
raid6: int32x4 867 MB/s
raid6: int32x8 578 MB/s
raid6: mmxx1 1789 MB/s
raid6: mmxx2 3230 MB/s
raid6: sse1x1 1585 MB/s
raid6: sse1x2 2476 MB/s
raid6: sse2x1 2656 MB/s
raid6: sse2x2 3644 MB/s
raid6: using algorithm sse2x2 (3644 MB/s)
md: raid6 personality registered for level 6
md: raid5 personality registered for level 5
md: raid4 personality registered for level 4
md: raid10 personality registered for level 10
JFS: nTxBlock = 8192, nTxLock = 65536
input: ImExPS/2 Generic Explorer Mouse as /class/input/input2
SGI XFS with ACLs, security attributes, large block numbers, no debug enabled
SGI XFS Quota Management subsystem
mount used greatest stack depth: 1500 bytes left
ISO 9660 Extensions: Microsoft Joliet Level 3
ISO 9660 Extensions: RRIP_1991A
usb-storage: device scan complete
scsi 6:0:0:0: Direct-Access Generic USB SD Reader 1.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
scsi 6:0:0:1: Direct-Access Generic USB CF Reader 1.01 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
scsi 6:0:0:2: Direct-Access Generic USB SM Reader 1.02 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
scsi 6:0:0:3: Direct-Access Generic USB MS Reader 1.03 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
sd 6:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
sd 6:0:0:1: [sdc] Attached SCSI removable disk
sd 6:0:0:1: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 0
sd 6:0:0:2: [sdd] Attached SCSI removable disk
sd 6:0:0:2: Attached scsi generic sg4 type 0
sd 6:0:0:3: [sde] Attached SCSI removable disk
sd 6:0:0:3: Attached scsi generic sg5 type 0
ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
ata1.00: BMDMA2 stat 0x282c0009
ata1.00: cmd c8/00:18:4f:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/e0 tag 0 cdb 0x0 data 12288 in
res 51/40:00:52:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x9 (media error)
ata1.00: configured for UDMA/100
ata1: EH complete
ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
ata1.00: BMDMA2 stat 0x282c0009
ata1.00: cmd c8/00:18:4f:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/e0 tag 0 cdb 0x0 data 12288 in
res 51/40:00:52:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x9 (media error)
ata1.00: configured for UDMA/100
ata1: EH complete
ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
ata1.00: BMDMA2 stat 0x282c0009
ata1.00: cmd c8/00:18:4f:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/e0 tag 0 cdb 0x0 data 12288 in
res 51/40:00:52:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x9 (media error)
ata1.00: configured for UDMA/100
ata1: EH complete
ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
ata1.00: BMDMA2 stat 0x282c0009
ata1.00: cmd c8/00:18:4f:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/e0 tag 0 cdb 0x0 data 12288 in
res 51/40:00:52:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x9 (media error)
ata1.00: configured for UDMA/100
. . .
ata1.00: configured for UDMA/100
ata1: EH complete
ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
ata1.00: BMDMA2 stat 0x282c0009
ata1.00: cmd c8/00:08:4f:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/e0 tag 0 cdb 0x0 data 4096 in
res 51/40:00:52:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x9 (media error)
ata1.00: configured for UDMA/100
ata1: EH complete
ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
ata1.00: BMDMA2 stat 0x282c0009
ata1.00: cmd c8/00:08:4f:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/e0 tag 0 cdb 0x0 data 4096 in
res 51/40:00:52:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x9 (media error)
ata1.00: configured for UDMA/100
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE,SUGGEST_OK
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Sense Key : Medium Error [current] [descriptor]
Descriptor sense data with sense descriptors (in hex):
72 03 11 04 00 00 00 0c 00 0a 80 00 00 00 00 00
00 00 00 52
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Add. Sense: Unrecovered read error - auto reallocate failed
end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 82
Buffer I/O error on device sda1, logical block 2
ata1: EH complete
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] 976773168 512-byte hardware sectors (500108 MB)
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
Installing knfsd (copyright (C) 1996 okir@monad.swb.de).
NFSD: Using /var/lib/nfs/v4recovery as the NFSv4 state recovery directory
NFSD: starting 90-second grace period
NET: Registered protocol family 10
lo: Disabled Privacy Extensions
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
eth0: link up, 100Mbps, full-duplex, lpa 0x45E1
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0: link becomes ready
eth0: no IPv6 routers present
mtrr: no more MTRRs available
mtrr: no more MTRRs available