Ok, to all computer experts out there, PLEASE explain to me RAID in simple english. From what I KNEW about RAID, RAID was: used to connect (for say) drives C: and D:, weras the C: was the functioning drive and D: an exact clone, where C: does something, D: follows exactly, copy and paste something on C:, D: does too, obviously that is not RAID nowdadays. So please someone explain to me what it is! Thanks in advance

Here is one of the better explanations I have seen:
http://www.systemlogic.net/articles/01/1/raid/

I suggest a Google search but:

RAID stripping puts two HDDs in an array that write to both at twice the speed of the slower of the two.

RAID mirroring writes to both HDDs simultaneously so that both have the same data.

two basics of raid is stripping and mirroring... as above... but there are many more levels of raid... ranging from 0 - 5...
some sites (extreme) says raid has till level 20...best now is raid 5 those are for large data storage stuff.

http://www.slcentral.com/articles/01/1/raid/

check it out

Okay..... Let's say you are moving and got a truckload of furniture. Everybody hates moving. You are all alone. After 3 hours your back is killing you, and you suddenly get a terrific idea-let's get some of your friends to help. Two more guys show up, you are all helping unload furniture, and one hour later you are done.
Okay, okey, bear with me here.
You got one harddrive. You are working the &*#%$ out of it accessing your data, and writing new data. Bright idea grabs you! Lets get THREE harddrives to break up the data into even parts and each accesses a third, and WALLAH! In 1/3 of the time the job is done.
That's RAID- Redundant Array of Independent Disks (I've also heard it called ..Inexpensive Disks).
There are several types of RAID, but that is the basic thing that they all do.

It is kinda all in the acronym RAID - Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks...

so can i have multiple partitions with raid? or will the 2+ drives be one huge virtual drive? And also, thanks for all the responses