Quote: My next machine will definately be at least RAID 1 (maybe raid 0-1 or 1-0). Drives have gotten bigger and cheaper over the years, but I hate to trust them.
Also note that a RAID array would not have solved this problem, if it really is filesystem corruption. And there are other failure modes it's not proof to, either: a failing power supply can toast every drive in a system...
Thanks, Peter. Your pearls of wisdom are greatly appreciated. The Wikipedia RAID article also does a wonderful job of explaining the pros and cons of RAID. How I wish the world could be as simple as I dream it to be!