(fd0)
First of all, GRUB requires that the device name be enclosed with ‘(’ and ‘)’. The
‘fd’ part means that it is a floppy disk. The number ‘0’ is the drive number, which is
counted from zero. This expression means that GRUB will use the whole floppy disk.
(hd0,1)
Here, ‘hd’ means it is a hard disk drive. The first integer ‘0’ indicates the drive
number, that is, the first hard disk, while the second integer, ‘1’, indicates the partition
number (or the pc slice number in the BSD terminology). Once again, please note that the
partition numbers are counted from zero, not from one. This expression means the second
partition of the first hard disk drive. In this case, GRUB uses one partition of the disk,
instead of the whole disk.
(hd0,4)
This specifies the first extended partition of the first hard disk drive. Note that the
partition numbers for extended partitions are counted from ‘4’, regardless of the actual
number of primary partitions on your hard disk.
(hd1,a)
This means the BSD ‘a’ partition of the second hard disk.
from grub manual...