Help optimize my file system

[Firestrider]

This is what I have:


NVRaid platform via Biostar 550 SE
Windows XP x86 Professional OEM
Windows Vista x86 Business OEM
1x SATA WD Raptor 36 GiB
2x PATA Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 120GiB (st3120026a-rk)


What I was thinking of doing was a dual boot OS on my Raptor with XP/Vista, leaving the rest for pagefile. I was going to make the static pagefile the size of 1.5x 2GiB min/max. On the Barracudas I was going to set them up in RAID 0 with a unknown stripe size on the NVRaid controller.

I have a few questions now:

What stripe size should I use if I will be mostly gaming?
If I do it this way will I ever need to reinstall my operating systems when I format the RAID?
Does NVRaid support Windows Vista x86?
Since I already activated both Vista and XP, will I be able to again after I format and reinstall them on new hardware?
Can I somehow have Windows show all three drives as one drive? What I didn't like about having two logical drives is that some software would automatically install to drive C when I wanted it on drive D. Maybe locking writes on drive C, but then I couldn't tweak the OS's, correct?

Thanks for your help in advance.

[tuskenraider]

This is what I have:


NVRaid platform via Biostar 550 SE
Windows XP x86 Professional OEM
Windows Vista x86 Business OEM
1x SATA WD Raptor 36 GiB
2x PATA Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 120GiB (st3120026a-rk)


What I was thinking of doing was a dual boot OS on my Raptor with XP/Vista, leaving the rest for pagefile. I was going to make the static pagefile the size of 1.5x 2GiB min/max. On the Barracudas I was going to set them up in RAID 0 with a unknown stripe size on the NVRaid controller.

I have a few questions now:

What stripe size should I use if I will be mostly gaming?
None, you should have your games with your OS. I've tried separate drive installs for the OS and programs/ games and didn't see any improvement when timing startup and loading.
If I do it this way will I ever need to reinstall my operating systems when I format the RAID?
No, but you'll have to reinstall whatever programs you put on it.
Does NVRaid support Windows Vista x86?
If you can download drivers, yes.
Since I already activated both Vista and XP, will I be able to again after I format and reinstall them on new hardware?
Sure.
Can I somehow have Windows show all three drives as one drive?
No, why would you? How would you then know which one you're using?
What I didn't like about having two logical drives is that some software would automatically install to drive C when I wanted it on drive D. Maybe locking writes on drive C, but then I couldn't tweak the OS's, correct?
Always pick the custom install so you have the option to choose the install folder. 95% of the software out there should let you do this.

Thanks for your help in advance.

[Firestrider]

Ok, I'm running Windows XP Pro on my ICH9R RAID right now, in what order should I set up everything, like this:

On Raptor:
1. Delete partitions
2. Format
3. Set up 2x 15GiB partitions
4. Install Windows Vista on first partition
5. Run vLite
6. Install Windows XP on second partition
7. Run nLite
8. Set up 50MiB static pagefile
9. Install drivers, hotfixes, patches, etc.
10. Disable unneeded services

On Barracudas in NVRAID:
1. Delete partition
2. Format
3. Set up NVRAID with 64K stripe size
4. Set up 3GiB static pagefile

Is there anything else I should do before I start downloading and installing files?

Is there a way I can have the desktop associated with the RAID 0 drives and not the OS drive?