>>>Yes, a mirrored (RAID1) HD is (or at least appears to be) a completely "natural" hard drive as regards format.
>>>I installed mine in a USB enclosure, powered it up and attached the USB cable with some trepidation. But to my great pleasure I was able to see the entire directory structure and copy from it at will. Some .zip extractions, Word document opens, Help file opens later from the copied stuff I was convinced that all seems perfectly normal with the HD.
>>
>>That was my guess. Is the computer back up and running? If so what was the problem?
>
>No, it's not. Last night they turned it on to show me it was operational and a strong sharp odour was smelled right away. Something on the motherboard apparently fried!@!$!#!@$

With the magic smoke gone out of them, those chips will never work again.