I tried the Yoper LIVE CD and got the same results. I updated the BIOS on the laptop to latest version. No change in the behavior.

Since the BIOS identifies the new 320GB HD as 137GB it's becoming obvious that I won't be able to boot any partition beyond that number. Using the entire drive once booted is not an issue.

If I move the "home" and "data" partitions to end of the drive I should be able to boot at least 2 distros and maybe 3 if I plan it right.

I also could try sharing a boot partition or have multiple boot partitions within the 137GB boundary and put everything else beyond.

Looks like a little creativity will go a long way.

Later,