Prob formating partition on raid

Set up an o/b raid stripe array on kr7a, partitioned into 3. Win XP on C, didnt get on with XP and decided to goto win 2k pro for first time. Boot from 2k cd and force to load drivers for o/b raid as am useing custom bios from Pauls Unofficial and must use latest highpoint drivers. Nway, delete C, create new C, format C (all under ntfs) and gets to 100% and then says could not format as disk(s) damaged or incorrect raid setup.

Ordinarily I would try wipeing all partitions and recreating array but I do not want to lose info on D partition as I didnt back up under XP cause the blasted cdrw software didnt seem to want to work without trashing disks.

Also I am slightly worried over poss of damaged HDD (s) due to the occasional noise (!) am uncertain of my information but think I have been told that some diag programs will break raid array. Am I safe useing HDDSpeed or any maxtor diag software (they are maxtor drives).

Any help would be appreciated.