10.04 install - boot disk failure

[nleco]

HI all,
I've gone through the forums and a few internet searches and I am a bit stuck on this one.

I have the following computer:
gigabyte 965p-dq6
80gb and 200gb ide drives (my mobo has one ide channel)

I tried installing Ubunto 9.10 and now 10.04 and both produce the same problem, which is:

1. install ubuntu
2. asks to remove disk and restart
3. restarts - but i obtain "BOOT DISK FAILURE" message.

i've tried removing and having one hard drive. and nothing works.

- I can see my BIOS detect the drives on IDE channel 4.
- I go into the bios settings and also have the boot sequence to be CD first, then HD. i also make sure to not have a cd in the drive bay.
- I also go into the drive boot sequence, and have the 200GB drive as #1, then the 80GB as #2. so it seems to be detecting them.
- only the 200gb has ubuntu, and its the primary drive.

i ran the following:

sudo blkid
/dev/loop0: Type="squashfs"
/dev/sda1: uuid="...someid..." type='ext4'
/dev/sda5: uuid="...someid..." type="swap"

sudo fdisk -l
disk /dev/sda: 203.9 GB
other stuff.....

device boot start end blocks id system
/dev/sda1 * 1 23783 191030272 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 23783 24793 8115201 5 extended
/dev/sda5 23783 24793 8115200 82 linux swap/solaris


Disk /dev/sdb: 82.0 GB
... some info..

device boot start end blocks id system
[.... blank ...]


I have a feeling it's just not detecting maybe the boot loader?
i've tried a few instructions i've seen on the site, but doesnt seem to work.

thanks in advance.