I'm having a problem with my lab system ever since installing Update 3... I can't access one of my local disks any more.

The disk is attached to the ICH7 SATA controller on my system (Dell PowerEdge 840). Since Update 3, this controller is managed by the IDE driver ("Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00beta4-2.4") instead of the ATA_PIIX driver.

I've added the appropriate entry to /etc/vmware/pciid/ata_piix.xml and run esxcfg-pciid which has correctly updated the various files (pci.xml, pcitable etc) and rebooted but still no disk.

I've had a look through the logs and it seems as though the problem is now that the kernel IDE driver has already got hold of the ICH7 controller before the ATA_PIIX driver starts:

/var/log/messages
Feb 11 19:58:53 maggie kernel: Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00beta4-2.4
Feb 11 19:58:53 maggie kernel: ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
Feb 11 19:58:53 maggie kernel: ICH7: IDE controller at PCI slot 00:1f.1
Feb 11 19:58:53 maggie kernel: ICH7: chipset revision 1
Feb 11 19:58:53 maggie kernel: ICH7: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
Feb 11 19:58:53 maggie kernel: ide0: BM-DMA at 0xfc00-0xfc07, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:pio
Feb 11 19:58:53 maggie kernel: ICH7-SATA: IDE controller at PCI slot 00:1f.2
Feb 11 19:58:53 maggie kernel: ICH7-SATA: chipset revision 1
Feb 11 19:58:53 maggie kernel: ICH7-SATA: 100% native mode on irq 20
Feb 11 19:58:53 maggie kernel: ide1: BM-DMA at 0xcc60-0xcc67, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA, hdd:pio
Feb 11 19:58:53 maggie kernel: ide2: BM-DMA at 0xcc68-0xcc6f, BIOS settings: hde:pio, hdf:pio
Feb 11 19:58:53 maggie kernel: hda: TSSTcorp CD-RW/DVD-ROM TS-H492C, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
Feb 11 19:58:53 maggie kernel: hdc: ST3500630AS, ATA DISK drive
Feb 11 19:58:53 maggie kernel: blk: queue c04b4fd8, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
Feb 11 19:58:53 maggie kernel: ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
Feb 11 19:58:53 maggie kernel: ide1 at 0xcc98-0xcc9f,0xcc92 on irq 20
Feb 11 19:58:53 maggie kernel: hdc: attached ide-disk driver.
Feb 11 19:58:53 maggie kernel: hdc: host protected area => 1
Feb 11 19:58:53 maggie kernel: hdc: 976773168 sectors (500108 MB) w/16384KiB Cache, CHS=60801/255/63
Feb 11 19:58:53 maggie kernel: hda: attached ide-cdrom driver.
Feb 11 19:58:53 maggie kernel: hda: ATAPI 48X DVD-ROM CD-R/RW drive, 1536kB Cache
Feb 11 19:58:53 maggie kernel: Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.12
Feb 11 19:58:53 maggie kernel: Partition check:
Feb 11 19:58:53 maggie kernel: hdc: hdc1

/var/log/vmkernel
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.475 cpu0:1024)Chipset: 695: 0-1:00 busIRQ= 0 on 00-02
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.475 cpu0:1024)IntrVector: 279: 0x91
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.475 cpu0:1024)IOAPIC: 957: vector 0x91 to 00-02
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.475 cpu0:1024)PCI: 2376: failed for IDE 000:31.1
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.475 cpu0:1024)*PCI: 1268: 000:31.2 8086:27c0 1028:01e7 added*
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.475 cpu0:1024)PCI: 1270: classCode 0101 progIFRevID 8f01
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.475 cpu0:1024)PCI: 1273: intPIN C intLine 11
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.475 cpu0:1024)Chipset: 695: 000:31 C busIRQ=126 on 00-20
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.475 cpu0:1024)PCI: 1281: irq 20 vector 0x89
{snip}
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.734 cpu2:1037)*PCI: 1975: 000:31.2 named 'vmhba0' (was '')*
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.734 cpu3:1035)PCI: 1975: 002:14.0 named 'vmhba1' (was '')
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.734 cpu2:1037)PCI: 1975: 006:00.0 named 'vmnic0' (was '')
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.766 cpu0:1024)VMNIX: CosSup: 663: Found 000:31.2 on the console
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.766 cpu0:1024)VMNIX: CosSup: 753: Unplugging 000:31.2
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.766 cpu1:1034)PCI: 1624: 000:31.2 to vmkernel
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.766 cpu1:1034)LinPCI: 43: 000:31.2 vmhba0
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.766 cpu0:1024)VMNIX: Mod: 467: Adding 000:31.2
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.774 cpu0:1024)VMNIX: CosSup: 663: Found 002:14.0 on the console
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.774 cpu0:1024)VMNIX: CosSup: 753: Unplugging 002:14.0
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.774 cpu1:1034)PCI: 1624: 002:14.0 to vmkernel
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.774 cpu1:1034)LinPCI: 43: 002:14.0 vmhba1
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.774 cpu0:1024)VMNIX: Mod: 467: Adding 002:14.0
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.779 cpu0:1024)VMNIX: CosSup: 663: Found 006:00.0 on the console
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.779 cpu0:1024)VMNIX: CosSup: 753: Unplugging 006:00.0
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.779 cpu1:1034)PCI: 1624: 006:00.0 to vmkernel
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.779 cpu1:1034)LinPCI: 43: 006:00.0 vmnic0
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.779 cpu0:1024)VMNIX: Mod: 467: Adding 006:00.0
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.838 cpu0:1024)Loading module ata_piix ...
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.840 cpu0:1024)Mod: 936: Starting load for module: ata_piix R/O length: 0xb000 R/W length: 0x4000 Md5sum: e8c795333929be433664377d59def006
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.921 cpu3:1035)Mod: 1373: Module ata_piix: initFunc: 0x89ed28 text: 0x89e000 data: 0x28e9400 bss: 0x28e98a0 (writeable align 32)
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.921 cpu3:1035)Mod: 1389: modLoaderHeap avail before: 7806552
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.921 cpu3:1035)Initial heap size : 1048576, max heap size: 8388608
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.921 cpu3:1035)<7>libata version 1.20 loaded.
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.921 cpu3:1035)PCI: driver ata_piix is looking for devices
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.921 cpu3:1035)PCI: Trying 00:1f.2
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.921 cpu3:1035)PCI: Announcing 00:1f.2
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.921 cpu3:1035)PCI: Trying 02:0e.0
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.921 cpu3:1035)PCI: Announcing 02:0e.0
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.921 cpu3:1035)PCI: Trying 06:00.0
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.921 cpu3:1035)PCI: Announcing 06:00.0
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.921 cpu3:1035)PCI: driver ata_piix claimed 0 device
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.921 cpu3:1035)ata_piix: pci_module_init failed (rc=-19)
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.921 cpu3:1035)Mod: 1436: Initialization for ata_piix succeeded with module ID 2.
Feb 11 19:59:17 maggie vmkernel: 0:00:00:02.921 cpu3:1035)ata_piix loaded successfully.

Is my assesment correct?
Can I prevent the basic IDE driver from grabbing the disk?
I don't mind losing access to the CD-ROM drive so perhaps the E-IDE driver can be completely disabled?

This has been working well under Update 2 and I've been using the disk for backups (my main storage is on a PERC 5 controller). I'd prefer to keep the lab system up-to-date but at the moment it looks like I'm going to be stuck on update 2

Please help!

Mark