In SATA mode, it seems as though the vt8251 gives a correct response to an IDENTIFY DEVICE command for device 0, but an identical response for device 1 regardless of attached drive. Is it possible that the vt8251 does not check the device bit? This was tested using Via's sata_via.c.patch available here: http://www.viaarena.com/Driver/via%20fc4.0%20sata&pata%20controller%20for%20software%20raid%20appnote%20ver0.8.gz - : send the line "unsubscribe linux-ide" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html