Had a similar problem recently with a new ATAPI tape drive.  After some
discussions and debugging with Manuel Bouyer, an additional delay has
been added in src/sys/dev/ic/wdc.c which might help you.  Get the latest
and see if it helps at all.

On Wed, 12 Jun 2002, David Laight wrote:

> On Wed, Jun 12, 2002 at 10:04:28AM -0700, Brian Buhrow wrote:
> > 	Hello David.  Thanks for the reply.  I have a little more info now.
> > The fake geometry and type "ST506" is being assigned by the wd driver
> > after it fails to do an ATA_Identify command.  So, the current task is to
> > find out why the identify command is failing.
>
> Possibly because the firmware is broken!
> Alternatively there may not be a long enough delay somwhere.
>
> I'm not sure with OS actually require the identify command!
> I had some compact flash cards that didn't respond to the
> identify request at one firmware level (gap between two
> that did respond), and that reported a corrupt buffer
> (missing one field near the end) on another.
>
> OTOH the PC BIOS normally reports a string that I thought
> came from the identify response.
>
> I'd try adding some gross delay loops during after any
> reset (etc).
>
> 	David
>
> --
> David Laight: david@l8s.co.uk
>

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