diff --git a/stand/common/disk.c b/stand/common/disk.c
--- a/stand/common/disk.c
+++ b/stand/common/disk.c
@@ -420,7 +420,10 @@
 	char *cp;
 	struct disk_devdesc *dev;
 
-	np = devspec + 4;	/* Skip the leading 'disk' */
+	if (strncmp(devspec, "md", 2) == 0)
+		np = devspec + 2; /* Skip the leading 'md' */
+	else
+		np = devspec + 4;	/* Skip the leading 'disk' */
 	unit = -1;
 	/*
 	 * If there is path/file info after the device info, then any missing