For future reference:
I had the same problem on a Toshiba netbook (don't remember the model number). Booting from a LiveCD worked fine. When I would boot from the hard drive, the system would hang for a very long time (more than ten minutes), then resume booting. The problem was a BIOS setting. I had to change the SATA controller (?) from its default setting to "compatibility".
I may be misremembering some details. I'll edit this post tonight and add more information.