bobmendon :
As I pointed out, my concern is losing the system drive and as a consequence losing my software raid configuration. It has been my experience that it's not a matter of if my drive should fail but more a matter of when.
This seems to be saying the system drive is different than the RAID array.
Yes?
If so, build the system.
Then create an image of the system drive, off on a whole other drive.
Save that, and update it once in a while.
In the case of the system drive dying, slot in a new drive to replace, and recover from that image.
I do this with Macrium Reflect (but without the RAID aspect).
My C drive is imaged every night at 2AM, keep for 2 weeks. Deleting the oldest as it goes.
So there is always a rolling image, rather than an always on 'mirror.
If my system drive dies, just slot in a new one and recover from whichever image I choose.
This also protects against any other corruption of that C drive. Something gts accidentally deleted, or some major virus infestation?
Recover from the image 2 days ago.