Yeah, I've seen this before.  Took me ages to figure it out too :-)

Okay, the problem is that the BIOS has a problem with using any
geometry other than the "DOS translated LBA geometry".  This
means that the only generic way I know of getting around the
problem is to

	Format disc under DOS
	use PFDISK.EXE to enquire what geometry actually got used
	install *bsd using the geometry reported by pfdisk, NOT
	  the geometry reported by the device probe.

You can skip the format/pfdisk *if* the BIOS tells you what the LBA
geometry is -- the Intel Endeavour AMI BIOSes which cause
the error I've seen don't.

In article <199608282234.WAA18450@whydos.lkg.dec.com> matt@lkg.dec.com wrote:
>
>I have a nice semi-new DEC Celebris with a P100 and 16MB.  For disk
>it has a 800MB IDE Maxtor.  I can install NetBSD just fine.  However, 
>I can't boot from hard disk.
>
>I get
>
>	Read error
>
>I can boot via floppy.  I've tried this using the entire disk and have
>a real DOS partition table and a NetBSD partition.  The same thing happens.
>I boot view floppy and boot the hard disk and that works fine.
>
>Ideas?
>
>-- 
>Matt Thomas               Internet:   matt@3am-software.com
>3am Software Foundry      WWW URL:    http://www.3am-software.com/bio/matt.html
>Westford, MA              Disclaimer: I disavow all knowledge of this message
>
>