>>>>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.

Its the way you fry them. You need to first half deep fry them, then let them cool down, then fry them again until ready.