The order of my SATA and PATA are switching all the time

[T o n g <mlist4suntong@yahoo.com>]

Hi, 

Recently I added an old PATA HD to my system, which previously consist of 
two SATA HDs. Ever since then, the order of my SATA and PATA are keep 
switching. 

NB, it is not that I can't boot, I can boot just fine, but half of the 
time the boot process will drop to that single user PANIC mode, saying 
sdbX can't be found. It looked to me that PATA was sda more than not, so 
I arrange my fstab like that, but due to so many boot failures, I'm not 
sure what's udev's picks actually is now. 

I've looked and seems that it is a well-known Debian only issue. E.g., 
http://linux.error-exception.org/article/1085839/dual+boot+mix+of+SATA+and
+PATA(EIDE)+drives
http://linux.error-exception.org/article/1267483/SATA+and+PATA+keep
+switching+drive+alias

"In my experience Debian derived distros don't handle the mix of [PS]ATA 
drives at all well. Seems to be a result of initscripts/udev rules not 
matching the device order the BIOS enumerates. Flat out bug.  I avoid the 
issue by using a distro that can work these things out sensibly. Usually 
Arch, although I also have Fedora 15 as the inital boot system on a 
machine that Ubuntu couldn't handle. Sorry I don't have a better answer 
for you."

Anyone know the cure? 

Thanks