Certain strings printed by hdparm (4.1-2; also in latest-rawhide 4.1-3) appear to be reversed
in a very odd way; Note e.g. Model; it is:

UQNAUT MIFERABLL PSA025.

It should be (according to dmesg):

QUANTUM FIREBALLP AS20.5

So every two characters they have flipped places.

#  hdparm -I /dev/hda1

/dev/hda1:

 Model=UQNAUT MIFERABLL PSA025.                , FwRev=1A.Y3100, SerialNo=980233745239        
 Config={ HardSect NotMFM HdSw>15uSec Fixed DTR>10Mbs }
 RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=32256, SectSize=21298, ECCbytes=4
 BuffType=DualPortCache, BuffSize=1902kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=16
 CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=-66060037, LBA=yes, LBAsects=40132503
 IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
 PIO modes: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4 
 DMA modes: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 *udma2 
 AdvancedPM=no
 Drive Supports : ATA/ATAPI-5 T13 1321D revision 1 : ATA-1 ATA-2 ATA-3 ATA-4 ATA-5