Edwin,

Not sure that the distinctions b/w RAID types are absolute. These boards are bus-dependent and (as I saw with the Arco DDII) subject to interaction with motherboard chipsets. If you can pop in the card and drives, go to BIOS to configure the RAID, then install any OS, it smells like "hardware" to me. On the other hand, I think that the distinction of having to use main CPU (versus on-board processor) is legit and one of the factors folks use in their definition. I have a FastTrack100 here on the shelf -- no i960 or other familiar processor to be seen. What I do know is that it wants drivers loaded under Win2K *before* installing the board. Not so the Arco and some others. I think perhaps the real distinction is price! If you paid over $300, it's hardware!

Ghost-wise, I looked at pricing on Provantage and it looks like the only distinction with the enterprise site-licensed version now is that you get a console utility. Since everything I care about is within arm's reach, the newer packaging of Ghost with networking will be peachy enough. On the Drive Image front, all I can say is that when I used an earlier version (v2 or 3??) is simply refused to work, at least in creating images; it froze every time. Again, my esteem for Powerquest's talents was/is high, so this was a surprise. If folks are having variable results, perhaps this is one of those 'ol hardware interaction issues again.

Jim