F9.5 -- HDD fails when moved to different system

[Robert Moskowitz]

I have a couple of decTOPs 
(http://www.google.com/interstitial?url=http://www.dataevolution.com/dectop%2520info%25202.htm), 
I have had problems with these systems with Centos 5, and had to perform 
the install on some old Compaq SFF, move the drive over, boot in init 3, 
and run 'system-config-display --reconfig'.

So after the F9 install failed to recognize the graphics card at all (a 
geode GX2 that Centos at least saw, but did not handle right), I did my 
F9 install on the Compaq SFF, upgraded to F9.5, and set inittab to init 
at level 3, then moved the disk.

Well the boot totally fails.  What I get is about:

    Reading all physical volumes.  This may take a while...
    No volume groups found
    Volume group "hda_00" not found
Unable to access resume device (/dev/sda2)
mount: error mounting /dev/root on sysroot as ext3: No such file or 
directory
setuproot: moving /dev failed: No such file or directory
setuproot: error mounting /proc: No such file or directory
setuproot: error mounting /sys: No such file or directory
Mount failed for selinuxfs on /selinux: No such file or directory
switchchroot: mount failed: No such file or directory

And then the system hangs.

I move the drive back to the Compaq SFF, and it boots.  I put the drive 
built on the decTOP but without any video back in the decTOP and it 
boots.  I move the Compaq built drive back to the decTOP and it fails again.

I see a couple of threads about HDD moves not working with F10, but this 
is F9, and I can move HDDs without any problem with Centos 5.  Oh, I 
could not even build with Centos 5.2 on the decTOPs because of a kernel 
bug in the install CD (patched later), so if I built on the decTOP it 
was with Centos 5.1 then upgraded to 5.2, then fight with the video, or 
build with Centos 5.2 on the Compaq and move the drive then reconfig the 
video.

Any ideas on what is going wrong here?