RAID

[Robert Ross]

(This is a cleaned-up repost)

Ok, this is a long post, but I'm sure there are some of
you out there wanting a good challenge, so here goes:

I've got an ABIT VH6-II board with the following drives:
WD 100gb (IDE-0 - Master, system drive - C:)
WD 100gb (IDE-0 - Slave, data drive - D:)
WD 40gb (PCI IDE card, IDE-0 - Master, data drive - E:)
WD 20gb (PCI IDE card, IDE-0 - Slave, data drive - F:)
CD/RW - IDE-1, Master - G:
CD - IDE-1, Slave - H:

I'm slowly turning this monster into a video editing
workstation. I want to ditch the PCI IDE card, RAID the 2
WD 100gb drives, and use the WD 40gb drive as my system
drive. I've cleaned my image up to about 35gb used space,
then used PowerQuest Drive Image to make 650mb files that
I have stored on my G drive (awaiting burn to CD). I
tried to have it burn the files directly to CD, but I kept
getting errors (another story all together). I'm a little
worried though since the original image was 97gb with 35gb
used - when I expand my image to a 40gb drive, will it
reassign data or will it say my image is too big?

SO - Once my RAID card arrives and I go get 27 CD's to
copy my image to, I want the system to look like this:
WD 40gb (IDE-0 - Master, System drive) - C:
WD 20gb (IDE-0 - Slave, data drive) - D:
CD/RW (IDE-1, Master) - E:
CD (IDE-1, Slave) - F:
WD 100gb x2 (RAID) - G:
(the drive letters are not important)

I know with the new Windows security that there is a lot
of behind-the-scenes stuff that goes on with registration -
so my questions are these:

1. Will Windows allow me to re-partition the system drive
down to 40gb from 100 without having to re-install? (If I
can do this, I won't have to worry about the 100gb image
that I ran through PowerQuest fitting onto a 40gb drive)

2. Is there a way to move the image on the system drive
from one hard drive to another and not have Windows
crash? I don't mind having to re-register, but I want to
do it over the net (I work days so I can't call for a new
# during Microsoft business hours). Keep in mind I'm only
ditching the PCI IDE card and adding a RAID card - I'm
keeping the mobo, processor, NIC, video, sound, IEEE, etc.
etc. etc.

3. If all else fails and I want to get a new MOBO with
RAID on board, can you change the MOBO only on a Windows
XP image? (again, I don't mind re-registering, as long as
I can do it via the net).

With all the new security around windows, it's hard to
tell what I can do vs. what I can't. Any help all of you
professionals out there can give me would be greatly
appreciated. If there are specifics to cumbersome or long
to put in a reply to this post, please e-mail me at


THANKS!