How can I "ignore"a dying hard drive?

[Bart Silverstrim]

Scott (angrykeyboarder) wrote:
> I've got 4 identical internal drives (Maxtor 7Y25050 - 250 GB SATA
> 1.5GB/s - if anyone cares).
> 
> One of them is dying and has been for some time.

I apologize if I'm missing something, but why not get the data off that 
dying drive and physically remove it?  I mean, since the filesystem 
drivers are trying to work with a drive that is probably giving spurious 
feedback and information, aren't you risking data integrity on other 
drives?  Or depending on how the drive is failing, possibly (remote 
chance) that it can harm the controller on the motherboard?

-Bart