How to prevent automounting of *everything*?

[Nick Name]

I have a problem that I have researched with no satisfaction, and I
hope someone can help.

I have a failing drive in an external USB enclosure from which I need
to recover data. It is imperative that this drive is only mounted read-
only, and it is also probably critical that I mount and read from this
drive as few times as possible.

I have found hints suggesting the creation of /etc/fstab with a
"noauto" entry for the specific drive I wish to keep from being
mounted.* However, that approach requires that I know in advance
either the UUID or the label name of the drive. I know neither.

How do I (temporarily) disable ALL automount behavior in OS X (10.6)
so that I can safely operate on the drive?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

--Matt

* (See, e.g., <http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sys.mac.misc/msg/
3ef64280e00cb35e>.)