New rig freezes on boot

[fopetesl]

Last week my mobo combo failed on boot up (no BIOS, no Beeps) so I replaced processor & mobo & memory.
Old system: ASUS A8N_SLi Deluxe, Athlon 3500+, 2GB GEIL DDR(1)
New system: ASUS M2V, Atlon 3800+, 1GB Kingston DDR2

Both systems with Radeon PCI Express X300, 250GB SATA.

Dual boot with XP and Mandriva 2007.

XP booted OK and after installing (new) drivers works fine, (that's how I can write this).

Mandriva will not load in any mode - the ouput from 'failsafe'

Loading sd_mod.ko module
Loading jbd.ko module
Loading ext3.ko module
Mounting /proc filesystem
Mounting sysfs
Creating device files
Mounting tempfs on /dev
Creating root device
Trying to resume from /dev/sda6
Unable to access resume device (/dev/sda6)
echo: cannot open /proc/suspend2/do-resume for write: 2
Mounting root filesystem /dev/root
mount: error 6 mounting ext3 flags default
well, retrying without option flags
mount: error 6 mounting ext3
well, retrying without any flag
mount: error 6 mounting ext3
Switching to new root
ERROR opening /dev/console!!!!: 2
unmounting old /proc
unmounting old /sys
Switchroot: mount failed: 22
Initrd finished
kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!

The the system freezes.

I ran 'rescue' from the install DVD which is no help except
# lsparts //.. returns nothing
# fdisk -l //.. returns nothing
# fdisk -l /dev/sda //.. returns nothing
#lsparts //.. returns nothing

If I try to mount all detected hardware:
sata_via IVT8273A installs OK
IDE/USB IVT82C586 fails with "Can't find via82Cxxx in archive"

If I try to mount I get "/mnt can't find root device".

I ran a partiton manager (from DOS?) and it sees all my partitions.

Where to now?:drown:

[tech_man]

Looks like it can't find you SATA hard drive. There should be a boot option where you can load all of the drivers.

[fopetesl]

Looks like it can't find you SATA hard drive. There should be a boot option where you can load all of the drivers.

Certainly looks like 'rescue' can't find the SATA except the systems does start to boot from it.

Are you talking from the DVD or HDD for driver load option? Like I said there is one on the DVD but it only partially succeeds and doesn't load the one 'good' driver onto the HDD.

[fopetesl]

It seems I have a hardware issue. I tried to run the 'patch' option from the DVD and it threw up "Found VIA VT8237A SATA 2 controller" with the query "Any other hardware?".
If I select "No" I get the response

An error occurred -
An error occurred - no valid devices were found on which to create new filesystems. Please check your hardware for the cause of this problem.

I noted that on the M2V mobo there is also a JMicron JMB363 SATA/PATA controller which I had previously discounted as a problem since I can read the DVD OK. If I select "Yes" to the above the JMB363 is not an option.
However it appears this could be a problem since:
a) it is not clear just which SATA ports it accesses
-and-
b) is not supported on kernel 2.6.17-x (it seems, however, that it is on 2.6.18 )

SO. How do I patch the kernel on a drive I cannot access.

How can I upgrade Mandriva 2007 with another Distro without trashing my programs and/or data, (/home is a separate partition, TG).

Does the name Yossarian mean anything here?