Help with RAID installation

[Thira]

Hi. I need some help in setting up a new system I am building. I installed the KV8-MAX3, 512 PC3200 RAM, ATI Radeon 9600XT, Athalon 3200+ CPU video, floppy drive and the following motherboards:
Two Seagate Barracuda SATA 160 GB (new) on SATA 3 & 4 on the motherboard
One Seagate IDE Ultra 200 GB(new) as master on IDE 1
One Maxtor IDE 20 GB (old but with my backup files and downloaded drivers) as slave on IDE 1
I need to install Windows XP Professional OS and want to do it on the SATA drives. I want to set a RAID on these two 160 GB HD's, and use the IDE 200 GB HD as a drive for backup.
How do I set up the RAID?
Should I partition the RAID array and install Windows XP on the C drive? If so how large should I make the C drive?
Should I use RAID 0 if I have a 200GB HD for backup? I also have a Sony DVD +/- R/RW, a Plextor CDRW, and an old Plextor SCSI CDRW I plan on setting up as well as installing a Creative Audigy Platinum sound card.
Lastly which is the best order to install drivers to accomplish the above?
Thanks. I would like to do it right the first time. So far the system boots fine with the 4 hard drives, video card, Sony DVD writer and Plextor CDRW

 

[Thira]

I found on VIA's website how to create the RAID array. However, the instructions state:

"Create your RAID array
Exit and your system will detect the Windows installation disc in the CD-rom and will begin to load the installation program. At the first Blue Screen prompt "Press F6 to install 3rd Party RAID Controller Software"
Follow the instructions. It will detect the driver disc in the floppy drive and install the VIA driver
I cannot press F6 and install 3rd party RAID controller software. When I press F6 nothhing happens, Windows keeps adding files and I do not get to the drivers on the Floppy.
How do I install the VIA RAID drivers so I can format the HDD's and install WinXP? Secondly, should I partition the HDD for a C drive to install the OS and a D drive for everything else? How large should C drive be? I plan to use the Seagate IDE 200 GB HD for file backup and the 20 GB Maxtor solely for loading drivers( I downloaded them there before the project began.
Thanks

 

[Ed_Phoon]

Are you using USB keyboard? If yes then set usb keyboard support via bios in cmos setup?