This post assumes that you've worked enough with Linux to know about the existence of software RAID in the Linux v2.6 kernel series, though not necessarily much about it.
If you're not familiar with it, RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) is a set of techniques that replicate data across multiple hard drives on the assumption that, at some point, a drive is going to fail. If the data can be found in some form on another drive, the data is still available. Otherwise you're out of luck unless you made backups, and if you're really unfortunate, your machine …
When using the Pilot Link toolset with an open source operating system to back up a PalmOS device such as the Palm Treo 700p, remember two things: One, when you connect the phone to your system using the USB cable, it will create two devices in the /dev directory, /dev/ttyUSB0 and /dev/ttyUSB1 (assuming that there is only one Treo plugged in at a time). You'll want to reference the second device file, /dev/ttyUSB1. Secondly, press the hotsync button on the cable or activate the hotsync function on the device before running the pilot-link utility. This is the …
