RAID noob...needs help with dual booting system

[javisaman]

I want some suggestions on how to set up my hard drives for what I'm trying to do:

1) I want to dual boot Windows Vista Business and Gentoo Linux (I need a boot partition)
2) I want some a RAID setup with improved speed (maybe just for Windows, not required for Linux)
3) Though I don't have any mission critical files I'd like an area to backup important ones.
4) I want a partition that I can share between Linux and Windows


Right now I only have two Seagate 7200.10 320GB drives (which I will call drive "X" and "Y"), but I plan on getting one more drive >400GB (drive "Z").

Here is a probable solution I came up with:

Drive Z:
Windows Vista OS partition
Boot partition
Linux Swap
Linux / *
Windows/Linux share */**
Backup */**

* most likely will be extended partitions.
* can be the same partition

Drive X+Y
Raid 0 Windows Programs (onboard RAID controller)

Here are some issues:
=>The OS's are on the same drive as the "Backup," so any failure in the Windows Vista Partition will corrupt the Backup and Linux and Vice Versa.

=>The X+Y Raid setup is huge (640GB!), and because I'm scared of disk failure (mainly because of what I've been reading in many tech forums) I'll be wasting the space.

=>The raid setup cannot be accessed in Linux

So I was also considering buying two more 320GB seagate drives and having the OS's in one drive, Backup in another, and a RAID setup for the Windows programs.

Is there a better more economical setup? Is there anyway to share RAID partitions across OS's? If so then I could set up a RAID 5 and put the backup files in it with the Windows Programs.

Sorry if I'm being confusing.

Thanks

 

[gigabyte1024]

I can't speak for Linux, but if I was you I'd setup Windows on a RAID0 partition.
Yes, it'll be more apt to fail, but IMO it'll be faster for general Windows use.

You can install Linux on the big drive alone and have a partition on that Windows can see too to documents and such.

You should always have some external backup solution in place.

 

[javisaman]

The main problem is that I think that I need Vista to be on the same drive that the boot partition (GRUB) is.