"follow-up softreset required "
                                        "but no softreset avaliable\n");
                        rc = -EINVAL;
-                       goto out;
+                       goto fail;
                }
 
                ata_eh_about_to_do(link, NULL, ATA_EH_RESET_MASK);
                rc = ata_do_reset(link, reset, classes, deadline);
-
-               if (rc == 0 && classify && classes[0] == ATA_DEV_UNKNOWN &&
-                   !(lflags & ATA_LFLAG_ASSUME_CLASS)) {
-                       ata_link_printk(link, KERN_ERR,
-                                       "classification failed\n");
-                       rc = -EINVAL;
-                       goto out;
-               }
        }
 
        /* -EAGAIN can happen if we skipped followup SRST */
        if (rc && rc != -EAGAIN)
                goto fail;
 
+       /* was classification successful? */
+       if (classify && classes[0] == ATA_DEV_UNKNOWN &&
+           !(lflags & ATA_LFLAG_ASSUME_CLASS)) {
+               if (try < max_tries) {
+                       ata_link_printk(link, KERN_WARNING,
+                                       "classification failed\n");
+                       rc = -EINVAL;
+                       goto fail;
+               }
+
+               ata_link_printk(link, KERN_WARNING,
+                               "classfication failed, assuming ATA\n");
+               lflags |= ATA_LFLAG_ASSUME_ATA;
+       }
+
        ata_link_for_each_dev(dev, link) {
                /* After the reset, the device state is PIO 0 and the
                 * controller state is undefined.  Reset also wakes up