kernel panic(?) trying to copy data off failed drive with dd

[Greg Lane]

Hi everyone,

Thanks to all who responded to my request for help.  I tried the
drive in three FreeBSD machines running 5, 6-stable and current. 
It brought all of them down hard, whether using dd, cpdup or other 
utilities.  I can only conclude it was hardware locking things up. 
I could not find an external SATA enclosure to try, so I cannot 
report success or failure with that. 

Fortunately I had a relatively recent backup and, after failing to 
image the partition, I took the risk of mounting the partition as 
is, without fsck'ing it.  All the files that had been 
changed since the backup were on good parts of the disk, so I 
managed to get a complete copy back together in the end. 

The drive is on its way to that place where all old drives go.....
my kids are pulling it apart with a screwdriver and pliers! Although 
they prefer to pull apart old keyboards!

Thanks again,
Greg