kernel search for ata-slave delays boot

[Ingo Guse]

I installed FBSD5.3 sucessfully on Toshiba-SatelliteM30 notebook.
When the kernel boots, it searches for slave-drives on ata0 and 1. As
there isn´t one, that causes delay during boot. How can I prevent the
kernel to look for slave drives? I think something with loader.conf and
hints, but I cannot find relevant items in the  docs. Any suggestions?
Thanks.