CentOS - Sep 2008 - Need help transfering CentOS5 from desktop to laptop

created 2 partitions on laptop (/ and swap)
formatted them.
mounted both source and target (under /mnt on each machine)
rsync -a / from desktop -> laptop
(Note: OS on desktop is on sdb5. On laptop it's going to sda1)

Now I need to put grub on mbr of laptop
boot: linux rescue
chroot /mnt/sysimage

Here is my problem

grub-install /dev/sda
The file /boot/grub/stage1 not read correctly.

Can anyone determine why I'm getting the above error?

I also tried
cp -a /usr/share/grub/i386-redhat/*  /boot/grub
no joy

Here is all important info (gathered from linux rescue chroot /mnt/sysimage):

--------------------------

/boot/grub/device.map

(fd0)	/dev/fd0
(hd0)	/dev/sda

-------------------------------

/etc/fstab

/dev/sda1               /                       ext3    defaults        1 1
devpts                  /dev/pts                devpts  gid=5,mode=620  0 0
tmpfs                   /dev/shm                tmpfs   defaults        0 0
proc                    /proc                   proc    defaults        0 0
sysfs                   /sys                    sysfs   defaults        0 0
/dev/sda2               swap                    swap    defaults        0 0

---------------------------------------

/etc/mtab

/dev/sda1 / ext3 rw,defaults 0 0
proc /proc proc rw,defaults 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs rw,defaults 0 0
/dev/sysfs /sys sysfs rw,defaults 0 0

-----------------------

fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        9500    76308718+  83  Linux
/dev/sda2            9501        9729     1839442+  82  Linux swap / Solaris


---------------------------

/boot/grub/grub.conf


# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You do not have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg.
#          root (hd0,0)
#          kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/md0
#          initrd /boot/initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda1
default=0
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
#hiddenmenu
title CentOS (2.6.18-92.1.10.el5)
	root (hd0,0)
	kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-92.1.10.el5 ro root=/dev/sda1 rhgb quiet
	initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.18-92.1.10.el5.img

---------------

mount output (in chroot /mnt/sysimage)

/dev/sda1 on / type ext3 (rw,defaults)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,defaults)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,defaults)
/dev/sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,defaults)

-----------------

/boot/grub


total 328
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root     30 Sep 20 16:42 device.map
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   7584 Sep 20 20:17 e2fs_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   7456 Sep 20 20:17 fat_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   6720 Sep 20 20:17 ffs_stage1_5
-rw------- 1 root root    618 Sep 20 20:17 grub.conf
-rw------- 1 root root    917 Sep 20 20:16 grub.conf.orig
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   6720 Sep 20 20:17 iso9660_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   8192 Sep 20 20:17 jfs_stage1_5
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      9 Sep 20 18:16 menu.lst -> grub.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   6880 Sep 20 20:17 minix_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   9248 Sep 20 20:17 reiserfs_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   5427 Nov 22  2007 splash.xpm.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    512 Sep 20 20:17 stage1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 104956 Sep 20 20:17 stage2
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 104956 May 24 14:37 stage2_eltorito
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   7072 Sep 20 20:17 ufs2_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   6272 Sep 20 20:17 vstafs_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   8864 Sep 20 20:17 xfs_stage1_5

--------------------------

/boot


total 14720
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  884809 Jun 14  2007 System.map-2.6.18-8.1.6.el5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  912799 Aug  5 05:05 System.map-2.6.18-92.1.10.el5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  912900 Jun 25 11:13 System.map-2.6.18-92.1.6.el5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   62154 Jun 14  2007 config-2.6.18-8.1.6.el5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   65411 Aug  5 05:05 config-2.6.18-92.1.10.el5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   65410 Jun 25 11:13 config-2.6.18-92.1.6.el5
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root    4096 Sep 20 20:47 grub
-rw------- 1 root root 1523888 Jul 12 19:47 initrd-2.6.18-8.1.6.el5.img
-rw------- 1 root root 2412127 Aug 28 14:48 initrd-2.6.18-92.1.10.el5.img
-rw------- 1 root root 2412095 Jul 12 17:31 initrd-2.6.18-92.1.6.el5.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   80032 Nov 22  2007 message
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   83542 Jun 14  2007 symvers-2.6.18-8.1.6.el5.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   91721 Aug  5 05:05 symvers-2.6.18-92.1.10.el5.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   91734 Jun 25 11:13 symvers-2.6.18-92.1.6.el5.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1765588 Jun 14  2007 vmlinuz-2.6.18-8.1.6.el5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1805620 Aug  5 05:05 vmlinuz-2.6.18-92.1.10.el5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1805556 Jun 25 11:13 vmlinuz-2.6.18-92.1.6.el5



-- 
Robert Arkiletian
Eric Hamber Secondary, Vancouver, Canada
Fl_TeacherTool http://www3.telus.net/public/robark/Fl_TeacherTool/
C++ GUI tutorial http://www3.telus.net/public/robark/

I gave up. I tried everything. Don't know what the problem was (buggy
bios/corrupt fs ....) and don't care now. Taking too much time to
simply re-install grub (6hrs). I'm doing a complete re-install on the
laptop.

-- 
Robert Arkiletian
Eric Hamber Secondary, Vancouver, Canada
Fl_TeacherTool http://www3.telus.net/public/robark/Fl_TeacherTool/
C++ GUI tutorial http://www3.telus.net/public/robark/