Bug#600580: unbootable when installing on USB HardDrive

[Bob]

Hi don't know if this is related to this bug but my Wheezy install on a 
USB HDD recently stopped booting, the thread on Debian-User is here
http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2012/05/msg01144.html

It gets as far as the grub> prompt and will boot if I enter
linux /vmlinuz root=/dev/sda1 ro
initrd /initrd.img
boot

I've tried various options to get grub working with no luck and I'm left 
wondering if it has something to do with the drive appearing more than 
once (3 times) in /dev/disk/by-id which my pen drive and USB SD card 
reader both of which GRUB can boot off do not.

> ls -la /dev/disk/by-id/
> total 0
> drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 240 May 22 22:58 .
> drwxr-xr-x 6 root root 120 May 22 18:54 ..
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   9 May 22 22:54 
> ata-ST1000LM010-9YH146_Z110VXRS -> ../../sda
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  10 May 22 22:54 
> ata-ST1000LM010-9YH146_Z110VXRS-part1 -> ../../sda1
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   9 May 22 22:54 scsi-SSeagatePortable -> 
> ../../sda
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  10 May 22 22:54 scsi-SSeagatePortable-part1 -> 
> ../../sda1
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   9 May 22 22:58 
> usb-Mass_Storage_Device_121F20110712-0:0 -> ../../sdc
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  10 May 22 22:58 
> usb-Mass_Storage_Device_121F20110712-0:0-part1 -> ../../sdc1
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   9 May 22 22:57 
> usb-TOSHIBA_TransMemory_0014780D094FBA508333016C-0:0 -> ../../sdb
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  10 May 22 22:57 
> usb-TOSHIBA_TransMemory_0014780D094FBA508333016C-0:0-part1 -> ../../sdb1
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   9 May 22 22:54 wwn-0x5000c500464bb542 -> 
> ../../sda
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  10 May 22 22:54 wwn-0x5000c500464bb542-part1 
> -> ../../sda1

I have tried feeding all 3 entries into /boot/grub/device.map, at 
install time grub chooses ata-ST1000LM010-9YH146_Z110VXRS

if I enter
(hd0)    /dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SSeagatePortable
into /boot/grub/device.map grub-install /dev/sda works with no errors 
but I still end up at grub> on reboot

if I enter
(hd0)    /dev/disk/by-id/wwn-0x5000c500464bb542
into /boot/grub/device.map grub-install /dev/sda works with no errors 
but I still end up at grub> on reboot

There's output from bootinfoscript here
http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2012/05/msg01921.html

What debugging can I do? I tried coppying a squeeze install onto a USB 
HDD and it wouldn't boot either, in fact it didn't make it to grub> 
getting stuck at grub rescue>

Should I start a new bug report or is this one enough?
Thanks for any help.

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