pulling the drives out of their housings and temp. putting them into your PC and using TeraCopy (with verify [for a copying during night [*]] !) wasn't doable ?
Not really since a) I don't have a desktop (3 laptops) and b) I'd need to wreck at least one case (not sure about the others but can't see any screws)
you probably supplied insufficient power to the drive.
That's a distinct possibility. I've never seen so much damage done from that before.