SATA - System Freezes

[Alan Cox]

> kernel: ata3.00: status: { DRDY }
> kernel: ata3: port is slow to respond, please be patient (Status 0xd0)
> kernel: ata3: device not ready (errno=-16), forcing hardreset

Stuck waiting for data then took a hard reset not a soft one to get it
back.

> /dev/sdc is my main drive. The only thing I can think of...is that this drive 
> is actually a PATA drive connected to the SATA controller on MoBo thru 
> a "SATA-TO-IDE Adapter" that I connect on the drive. Perhaps the converter is 
> faulty...or could this be a known issue with libata? 

Could be a convertor problem. What does smart utils have to say about the
drive last logged errors ?