So, I hear of this Norton Ghost 14.0, sounds fun.

There is also this funky little operating system, Windows Vista 64 Home Premium. Sometimes, it has software issues, and it does not play well with RAID installations, or so I hear. (8GB of RAM also seems to mess with Vista programs, does Ghost suffer this ailment?)

Additionally, there is this fantastic data recording concept called RAID. Specifically, RAID 0. Supposed to speed up data archiving by splitting data between two or more hard drives.

My question is, what is the best way to get these three buggers working with each other?

The Simple Plan:

1. Install Vista onto a single 250GB hard drive.
2. Install RAID drivers and Norton Ghost.
3. Setup RAID 0 on to two different 250GB drives. (For a single 500GB array and the other 250GB.)
4. Create the primary Windows partition on the RAID array, using Ghost.
5. Use the single 250GB drive as the backup image.

So, can this be done? What issues exist with Vista 64 and RAID? What is the best course of action? Keep in mind, I know little of Vista and nothing of RAID, let alone the two combined. Ghost pointers are also helpful.

Thanks.

Good questions. For starters, have you seen this?

http://radified.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1206187180

Yeah, with RAID-0, you definitely want to use a cloning prgm.

So you are gonna have total 3 X 250 drives? (physical)

Yes, 3 x 250GB, 2 in RAID, 1 for backup.

I looked at the said thread, and I basically have this to ask:
What program will allow me to back up a fresh image, either from the RAID setup to the single drive or vice versa, and them reliably restore from the image? My primary objective with this is to create a "fresh install point" with Vista and all required drivers updated, to improve re installation and improve data security? Booting from the CD is fine.

Sun, this thread may be of assistance:  http://radified.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1207106727

I suspect that ShadowProtect Desktop by StorageCraft is the answer to the question, but I encourage you to post your question on their user forum to be sure (see http://forum.storagecraft.com/Community/forums/8.aspx).