Problem reinstalling Xubuntu 16.04

[MR ZenWiz]

On Sat, Apr 8, 2017 at 1:07 PM, MR ZenWiz <mrzenwiz at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I misspoke - it will boot from the old 80GB hard drive, Windows 7 and
> Ubuntu 11.04, but it won't install on the other two disks.  It boots
> from the install DVD or USB drive, but it hangs part way through
> installation, a different place every time.
>
> IIRC, when I booted the externally installed Xubuntu 16.04 on the
> 320GB drive, it started to boot, stopped for a long wihle, then came
> up in BusyBox saying there was a disk i/o error, but not which one.
> It suggested checking the command line (correct), checking the UUID on
> the command line (correct), checking the drive parameters (none) and
> one other thing I can't recall, but i used the BusyBox commands to
> check all of these and nothing showed up as off.  It just won't boot
> from the bigger drives (it used to work just fine last time I was
> running it, a few weeks ago).
>
> I'll try again today with the battery in and the power cord, but I'm
> ready to leave it with the 80GB drive and just pull it out for those
> times when I have to use a Windows machine and the VM won't do
> (separate issue coming soon), like with the DHS I-9 PDF forms that
> require Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to function properly.
>
> Thanks.

Here's a link to a photo I took after five minutes of it not moving
during 16.04 installation to overwrite the Ubuntu 11.04 that was
there.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-3x0QT9-7fIX0tobC1Qc181aWc

Apparently 16.04 really does not like this hardware.

As it happens, the on-board Win7 also is giving me grief - it says my
copy is not authorized.  Probably because this disk was in a different
laptop before.  I'm amazed it runs 7 a all, since it used to run XP.

So much fun.

Are there any decent hardware level diagnostics to ferret out what may
be wrong with the disk controller?  I've never seen any.