Doing a disk-level image operation carries the boot code from the source system. One of the problems with boot code in general is that like everything else, it's copyrighted (and subject to patents too, even more messily). There is boot code in gdisk that it will use with the "gdisk /mbr" switch which is one we're allowed to redistribute but I don't believe Ghost has that embedded.

With respect to partition images, it may be that restoring them won't alter the MBR on the target disk even if it doesn't detect an MBR signature there already. So, you might not end up with boot code in the MBR at all if the disk you're restoring to is completely and utterly blank. If you're restoring a partition image to an empty disk fresh from a manufacturer, it's probably a good idea to have the disk initialised by something at least once before using it with a partition load so there's some suitable boot code on it.

As for the Raid-0 question, gaming performance ... I don't know any more.

In times of yore it did make a difference to me, but with the new system I got one of the 7200.10 Seagate's (just a little 250Mb one, but all of the 7200.10 series benchmark really well) for the boot volume, while I also compared them to a Raid-0 stripe set with two WD Caviars. All drives are SATA.

Having used them both as boot drives, I can honestly say I can't tell the difference between the array and non-array, at least in any game I have (mainly Oblivion, which is what I speced out the new machine specifically to play smoothly - which it does).

I used to be able to get a noticeable bump from striping on older machines in the IDE days, and I was really expecting to get one. But given all the improvements in systems these days the practical difference from striping for me is now marginal enough that I'd rather use a mirror set and get some reliability. YMMV of course, and if you've got a particular game that you're interested in (like I was with Oblivion) once you've got things set up you can switch back and forth a few times to check how things "feel" in practice.

I'm still searching the internet to find out what to do. I just found this Anandtech article and was wondering what your opinion is on it.

http://www.anandtech.com/printarticle.aspx?i=2101

I know it's a bit old but still not obsolete I think. Although ofcourse HDD have developed through the years I think that my HDD are still not as fast as those Raptor II HDD's. When Anandtech is true, it is not worth the effort for me because I was planning to use RAID-0 for gaming only. And above all, I would risk to loose a flawlessly working system!!!!

Last week I was also thinking, that I maybe already use some kind of RAID-0 setup because the OS togetherr with the Windows swapfile are installed on a different physical HDD than my games. So when loading and playing games there is already some simultanuous read/write action present.