diff --git a/qemu-options.hx b/qemu-options.hx
index 787b9c38da..f68829f3b0 100644
--- a/qemu-options.hx
+++ b/qemu-options.hx
@@ -803,8 +803,8 @@ STEXI
 Force hard disk 0 physical geometry (1 <= @var{c} <= 16383, 1 <=
 @var{h} <= 16, 1 <= @var{s} <= 63) and optionally force the BIOS
 translation mode (@var{t}=none, lba or auto). Usually QEMU can guess
-all those parameters. This option is useful for old MS-DOS disk
-images.
+all those parameters. This option is deprecated, please use
+@code{-device ide-hd,cyls=c,heads=h,secs=s,...} instead.
 ETEXI
 
 DEF("fsdev", HAS_ARG, QEMU_OPTION_fsdev,
diff --git a/vl.c b/vl.c
index f46e070e0d..42d4bce439 100644
--- a/vl.c
+++ b/vl.c
@@ -3231,6 +3231,8 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv, char **envp)
                         }
                     }
                 }
+                error_report("'-hdachs' is deprecated, please use '-device"
+                             " ide-hd,cyls=c,heads=h,secs=s,...' instead");
                 break;
             case QEMU_OPTION_numa:
                 opts = qemu_opts_parse_noisily(qemu_find_opts("numa"),