IDE Hotswaping problem

I'm running RedHat9.0 with kernel 2.4.23.
Using hdparm-5.4(idectl 1 on/off), I can attach or de-attach /dev/hdc. It works very fine. But /proc/ide/ide1 is increasing.
Like this.

# ls /proc/ide
amd74xx drivers hda hdc ide0 ide1

# idectl 1 off
# idectl 1 on
hdc: MAXTOR XXXXX, ATA DISK drive
ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
hdc: attached ide-disk driver.
hdc: host protected area => 1

# ls /proc/ide
amd74xx drivers hda hdc ide0 ide1 ide1

# idectl 1 off
# idectl 1 on
hdc: MAXTOR XXXXX, ATA DISK drive
ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
hdc: attached ide-disk driver.
hdc: host protected area => 1

# ls /proc/ide
amd74xx drivers hda hdc ide0 ide1 ide1 ide1

How do I stop increasing ide1?
It looks ide1 can not be erase.

nickey