Comment 16 for bug 157909

I honestly do not believe that any particular static CONFIG_IDE_MAX_HWIFS is reasonable if SATA drives are found before on-board IDE (or, even perhaps, e-IDE cards). I feel the best way for this to be handled is to take inventory of the hardware when the kernel is being installed, leaving the option for the administrator to increase that number if he/she feels that a drive or two or twenty might be added later. Any single digit number would be seriously lacking in this case.

Also, is this issue only affecting systems with older SATA controllers? IDE should show up as hdxx, whereas SATA should show up as sdxx (and, mine do not). If that's the case, I think a simple patch would be effective until the older SATA controllers are all but extinct.

Just some thoughts...