Please help with Raid, reinstall

[Sammy1719]

Here is the setup I have on my computer.

It is running XP Pro.
I have one hard drive dedicated to the Operating System.
Another two (2 x 80gig) on which a RAID was set up by my friend who build the computer for me.

I am not sure what type of RAID he set up. I remember he would say striping, which I guess is RAID 0, but not 100% sure if that is the correct set up.

Anyways, I need to reinstall my operating system and format the OS hard drive, but I am afraid it will somehow ruin the RAIDed harddrives. I have very very important files on these disks and cannot loose them.

I have tried to pull the hard drives out and stick them into an external hard drive case. I was only able to back up the stuff from the OS hard drive but the Raid hard drives would not open. I guess after the RAID they are sort of 1 now. This leaves me to believe that it is RAID 0, otherwise they would work externally on their own, but they don't.

Also, I have a lot of video files, which are very large, and if it was "mirroring" they would fill up very quickly.

So I guess my question is how should I reinstall my OS and not loose the files that are on the RAIDed hard drives. The stuff on OS hard drive has been backed up.

Thank You

 

[Sammy1719]

Little correction:
It has XP home installed.
I might install XP Pro.

 

[Laputa]

It's RAID-0 striped. Have of the data is on one drive and the other half on the other. Just boot up the system and backup the stuff on the RAID first. Then redo the OS. Install the RAID driver. If the OS detects your RAID after the OS installation, you are done. If not, recreate the RAID volume and copy all the stuff back.

 

[Sammy1719]

Originally posted by: Laputa
It's RAID-0 striped. Have of the data is on one drive and the other half on the other. Just boot up the system and backup the stuff on the RAID first. Then redo the OS. Install the RAID driver. If the OS detects your RAID after the OS installation, you are done. If not, recreate the RAID volume and copy all the stuff back.

I can't boot up the computer to back up. Not even in Safe Mode. It will go up to the login screen and when I click on the user icon it it will say login and after 5 secs. it will say saving something and loging off.