software RAID 1 w/3 Drives

[Randy Melder]

This is what gets me:
"If up to N-1 disks are removed (or crashes), all data are still
intact. If there are spare disks available, and if the system (eg.
SCSI drivers or IDE chipset etc.) survived the crash, reconstruction
of the mirror will immediately begin on one of the spare disks, after
detection of the drive fault."
( http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Software-RAID-HOWTO-1.html#ss1.4 )

Does that mean the spare disk is empty until a fault or removal of one
of the drives?

I guess I'm just looking for something that says "Spare disks in the
array maintain the same mirror at all times even after failure of N-1
disks."

Am I splitting hairs?

; ) .randy