Kernel Crash, what is this?!... (w/ big P.S.)

[msowka at rogers.com]

... haven't seen Linux crash on me since RH8! ;)

Here is the scoop, pretty simple, folks:

I mount my /media/cdrecorder, do 'cp -r
/media/cdrecorder ~/Media' (or via nautilus) and the
system crashes; every time, totally reproducible,
without a fault.

When I do it in tty1 I see a bunch of messages, with
the last one being <*****> unknown_bootoption****. (I
can give more detailed report if required)

Now here is the kicker, BIG P.S. :

I recently had an accident with 'rm -rf' and lost 1/2
of my /etc directory (please don't ask)... in order to
save myself from starting from scratch I rescued my
/etc from a very similar system.

Although it may not seem like it ;), I'm pretty handy
with Linux, so I moulded my /etc into proper shape
(network, mounts, conf files etc etc). PAINFULL.

I thought all was well until this came up... I would
think that the kernel would be smart enough to report
any discrepancies in my /etc/ stuff without crashing
on me like this, but I DEFINITELY wouldn't count this
out as a possible cause of my problems.

Any suggestions are MUCH appreciated,
Mike