Intel Matrix Raid Problems

[Sparky]

Well I should have gone Christmas shopping but opted to 'play' with a new program in Vista on my dual boot set up. Long story short, it froze, hung and I hit the reset button. Neither XP nor Vista would boot (light bar goes across the screen forever, no boot).
I'm running Intel Matrix RAID using 2 HD's (0,1). On boot the Intel Raid screen was showing one drive OK, other 'Verify'. Thought I could fix this by unplugging the one drive and plugging another back in since I know it should repair it. Well it didn't. Now the one drive shows 'failed' and I get message saying Windows can't locate NTLDR. Tried the NTLDR repair via floppy I'd read about on web, nothing. Tried to use the Windows XP install disk to 'repair' Windows installation, but it says it can't find any HD's (probably because it needs the RAID drivers first?). Took both HD's out and plugged them in to my other PC to try to salvage files but they don't appear (because it was Matrix RAID 0 & 1 on same HD's?).
I think my only option is to reinstall Windows but I really wanted to recover some files off the 2 RAID drives but I think I'm hosed. Thought I was being cautious by running RAID 0,1 so I would be able to recover data but I guess not.
Anybody know how to repair this Windows install or retrieve files that were on the RAID drives before I reformat them and reinstall Windows?

[Monk]

Most generally when I see the "can't Locate NTLDR" it means the boot sequence got messed up in BIOS. If you're lucky a quick trip to BIOS and resort out the boot order will fix the problem.

What happens when you plug in the original drives and do the verify thing in the Raid screen?

Failing both of these options, I am afraid that you are pretty much hosed.

Sorry!

[Sparky]

Thanks Monk, I've resigned my self that's I have to reinstall Windows. When I try to boot with the original drives it shows one drive 'failed' & other shows 'verifying' or something like that. Both are not good things in a RAID set up, but I know the drives are OK individually because I have plugged both in to another system and they are ok as stand alone drives.
I really just wanted some files off the RAID drives as my last back up was 30 days ago. My bad.