IDE to CF issue

[Cybertime Hostmaster]

I have been trying to get FreeBSD onto a CF, and had an assortment of
issues.

I now have a version of FreeBSD 5.X CURRENT that is compiled and
configured in the way I want by some people that are doing the same thing
I am.

They use dd to flush this archive to a cf that is installed as an IDE
drive, so I tried to do the same thing.

The test system I am using to write this has two hard drives, but not
hooked up at the same time.  One is 5.1, the other is 4.9

I get the following message with 5.1:

dd: /dev/ad2: Input/output error
1+0 records in
0+0 records out
0 bytes transferred in 0.003308 secs (0 bytes/sec)

So in case it was something odd, I went to the 4.9 and get this:

dd: /dev/ad2: Input/output error

Next I did tail /var/log/messages

Dec 19 14:47:01 wanker /kernel: ad2: hard error reading fsbn 0 (ad2 bn 0;
cn 0 tn 0 sn 0) status=51 error=05
Dec 19 14:47:01 wanker /kernel: ad2: reading primary partition table:
error reading fsbn 0

(error repeats several times)

Most the posts I have seen with "hard error reading fsbn 0" relate to the
PIO mode, which is absolutely no help.

Anyone have an idea where to start?

--Eric