One thing tht may be affecting the outcome - I don't use the standard device names (dh0::, dh1: etc.), but set each of my machines wirth a sightly different set of names (e.g. dso:, ds1: for the Samsung, dc0:. dc1: for the Compaq etc.). This is so if a machine 'dies' and I need to extract data from its hard drive by connecting to another computer AROS does not get confused with the same device name appearing twice. However, as mentioned I've never seen this cause a problem with the installer before.
Cheers,
Ngel.
P.S. I also give each device its own unique volume name, e.g. AROS_S, Work_S, and for each machine assign the standard names (AROS, Work etc.) in the first few lines of its startup-sequence).