LinuxQuestions.org - Grub error 16 in stage 1.5

I'm am suddenly getting a grub error 16 on a Debian machine at stage 1.5, at am at my wit's end to figure out what the problem is. It ran fine, until I decided to do an upgrade of the packages on the machine. Upon reboot, I got grub error 16. Having nothing on the disk to loose, I eventually did a reinstall with Debian 3.1 AMD64. But again got grub error 16. I used Knoppix to zero the MBR and installed again. And got grub error 16. I made sure that /dev/hda was selected as the boot disk in the BIOS, after the CD-ROM, but it didn't help. I grabbed a brand new disk, to make sure there was nothing lingering on a sector, ran the debian install, taking the defaults, and the problem still occurs. I have also tried, at various points, doing grub-install from Knoppix (sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/hda1 /dev/hda), but with no better results.

Hardware setup: MSI MS6702 motherboard, 512MB ram. Hda (the boot drive) is the primary master, and the CD rom is the secondary master using the onboard IDE. The machine also has an 8-port 3ware card (7508, if I recall properly), and a Promise UltraTX2 because the box contains 10 disks (for a raid 6 setup) in addition to the boot disk.

The disk is set up so that /dev/hda1 is the root partition. Inside the /boot directory are the files

System.map-2.6.8-11-amd64-generic
config-2.6.8-11-amd64-generic
grub
initrd.img
initrd.img-2.6.8-11-amd64-generic
vmlinuz
vmlinuz-2.6.8-11-amd64-generic

Inside the grub directory, menu.lst is below. Nothing looks wrong to me, which makes it a mystery.

# menu.lst - See: grub(8), info grub, update-grub(8)
# grub-install(8), grub-floppy(8),
# grub-md5-crypt, /usr/share/doc/grub
# and /usr/share/doc/grub-doc/.

## default num
# Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and
# the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.
#
# You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default entry
# is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'.
default 0

## timeout sec
# Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default entry
# (normally the first entry defined).
timeout 5

# Pretty colours
color cyan/blue white/blue

## password ['--md5'] passwd
# If used in the first section of a menu file, disable all interactive editing
# control (menu entry editor and command-line) and entries protected by the
# command 'lock'
# e.g. password topsecret
# password --md5 $1$gLhU0/$aW78kHK1QfV3P2b2znUoe/
# password topsecret

#
# examples
#
# title Windows 95/98/NT/2000
# root (hd0,0)
# makeactive
# chainloader +1
#
# title Linux
# root (hd0,1)
# kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro
#

#
# Put static boot stanzas before and/or after AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST

### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified
## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below

## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs

## ## Start Default Options ##
## default kernel options
## default kernel options for automagic boot options
## If you want special options for specifiv kernels use kopt_x_y_z
## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted.
## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
# kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro console=tty0

## default grub root device
## e.g. groot=(hd0,0)
# groot=(hd0,0)

## should update-grub create alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. alternative=true
## alternative=false
# alternative=true

## should update-grub lock alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. lockalternative=true
## lockalternative=false
# lockalternative=false

## altoption boot targets option
## multiple altoptions lines are allowed
## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options
## altoptions=(recovery mode) single
# altoptions=(recovery mode) single

## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst
## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the
## alternative kernel options
## e.g. howmany=all
## howmany=7
# howmany=all

## should update-grub create memtest86 boot option
## e.g. memtest86=true
## memtest86=false
# memtest86=true

## ## End Default Options ##

title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.8-11-amd64-generic Default
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda1 ro console=tty0
initrd /boot/initrd.img
savedefault
boot

title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.8-11-amd64-generic Default (recovery mode)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda1 ro console=tty0 single
initrd /boot/initrd.img
savedefault
boot

title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.8-11-amd64-generic
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8-11-amd64-generic root=/dev/hda1 ro console=tty0
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.8-11-amd64-generic
savedefault
boot

title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.8-11-amd64-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8-11-amd64-generic root=/dev/hda1 ro console=tty0 single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.8-11-amd64-generic
savedefault
boot

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST