ata strangeness while doing newfs

[Martin P. Hellwig]

Hi all,

I wonder if somebody has some directions for me.
I added a 40GB hd and while doing newfs on a partition I get a couple of:
ad3: WRITE command timeout tag=0 serv=0 - resetting
ata1: resetting devices .. done
and then:
ad3: trying fallback to PIO mode
ata1: resetting device .. done
ad3: timeout waiting for DRQ - resetting
the last 2 repeat them self a couple of time and finally newfs exits with:
write error: 20779104
newfs: wtfs - writecombine: Input/output error
If I repeat the newfs command the I also get these errors in the console:
ata1: WARNING: resetting donecount 3072 for retry
The number 3072 varies, but the write error number newfs exist is always 
the same for that particular disk.

Normally when I get these kind of errors I blame faulty hardware and 
just buy a new HD or controller (mobo).
However this time it occurs inside a Virtual Machine instance on MS 
Virtual Server 2005.

The odd thing is that smaller partition do work (say less then 4G).

The DF version is 1.2.2-RELEASE

I tried FBSD5 too but it also has problems with the controller and exist 
right after the first superblock.

Any hints greatly appreciated

--
mph