The Linux software Raid-1 documentations did include a warning, but I didn’t take the threat seriously: if both of the hard drives are IDE, one crashing can cause data loss on the second. It’s even worse if both drives are on the same channel — and, as it happens (against all logic), both SATA ports on my motherboard are linked to a single channel. More or less. Well, the BIOS configuration options are a mess, but the only way to make the whole thing works seems to be to have them both on the same channel.

Anyway, Linux’s software Raid management is great (replace the drive, boot the computer, and your data starts replicating automatically), but IDE is crap and I lost two folders. This time, those were data I already had on the former Ripley’s hard drive, so I could get them back, but I don’t know what I’ll lose next time — and there will necessarily be a next time, considering my replacement drive is still a Maxtor.

I didn’t bother configuring a Raid-1 array on Linux to have to buy a DAT backup system on top of it, damnit!