I ran into this error message when installing Damn Small Linux (DSL) on a hard disk installed on my Dell desktop. The disk was then installed on a PC104 imbedded computer. I searched numerous postings on the web and found only hints to a solution. I finally solved the problem for my case and wanted to share the results:

Here's what didn't work: I installed the disk as the Secondary Slave on my Dell and then installed DSL from a LiveCD, including GRUB. When I moved the disk to the PC104 it was installed as the Primary Master. When I tried booting, I got the GRUB HARD DISK ERROR message.

Here's what did work: I installed the disk as the Primary Master on my Dell and then installed DSL (from a LiveCD), including GRUB. When I moved the disk to the PC104 and installed it as Primary Master, it booted OK.

Speculation: the hints I found indicated that GRUB was getting different disk "dimensions" (e.g., head, cylinder, sector numbers) when the error was reported. I suspect that when my disk was installed on the Secondary Slave connector, GRUB still read dimensions of the Primary Master disk. So then when it was installed as the Primary Master in the PC104 system it read dimension numbers from its BIOS that didn't match those held by GRUB. I'm not a GRUB expert, so this is a guess.

Conclusion: install the disk as the Primary Master when installing GRUB. Good luck!