> Try turning off the drive's write cache (dkctl wdN setcache r) and
> then overwriting the drive a few times.

I did that. It fails the same way, but the error log is "more verbose" :

wd1e: error reading fsbn 20285680 of 20285680-20285695 (wd1 bn 22420624; 
cn 22242 tn 10 sn 58), retrying
wd1: (obsolete (address mark not found))
wd1: soft error (corrected)
piixide0:1:0: lost interrupt
         type: ata tc_bcount: 8192 tc_skip: 0
piixide0:1:0: bus-master DMA error: missing interrupt, status=0x21
piixide0:1:0: device timeout, c_bcount=8192, c_skip0
wd1e: device timeout reading fsbn 17164656 of 17164656-17164671 (wd1 bn 
19299600; cn 19146 tn 6 sn 54), retrying
wd1: soft error (corrected)
wd1e: error reading fsbn 28173968 of 28173968-28173983 (wd1 bn 30308912; 
cn 30068 tn 5 sn 53), retrying
wd1: (id not found)
wd1: soft error (corrected)
wd1e: error reading fsbn 48893584 of 48893584-48893695 (wd1 bn 51028528; 
cn 50623 tn 8 sn 40), retrying
wd1: (uncorrectable data error)
piixide0:1:0: lost interrupt
         type: ata tc_bcount: 57344 tc_skip: 0
piixide0:1:0: bus-master DMA error: missing interrupt, status=0x21
piixide0:1:0: device timeout, c_bcount=57344, c_skip0
wd1e: device timeout reading fsbn 48893584 of 48893584-48893695 (wd1 bn 
51028528; cn 50623 tn 8 sn 40), retrying
wd1e: error reading fsbn 48893584 of 48893584-48893695 (wd1 bn 51028528; 
cn 50623 tn 8 sn 40), retrying
wd1: (uncorrectable data error)
wd1: transfer error, downgrading to Ultra-DMA mode 1
wd1(piixide0:1:0): using PIO mode 4, Ultra-DMA mode 1 (using DMA data 
transfers)
wd1e: error reading fsbn 48893584 of 48893584-48893695 (wd1 bn 51028528; 
cn 50623 tn 8 sn 40), retrying
wd1: (uncorrectable data error)

And then it hangs the same way.
I can stop the fsck by CTRL-Cing, but thereafter the bus stays busy and 
every subsequent command fails (hangs).

> Assuming this does help, please post the drive's identify output, so I
> can add it to my list.

The drive is a Western Digital Caviar 60 GB, Model : WD600AB-32CZA0, 
Parameters : LBA 117231408.

Have fun,
Vincent