I just found an Itel page that gives different instructions for Intel Matrix RAID on Vista than the steps I followed. I will try those and report back here.
More Info:
When I rebooted to the RAID control screen, it said the drives were all non-raid. I'm really stumped about what to do next. I might forget RAID altogether.
Maybe this is not due to the drive-specific issue you mentioned.
I got identical behavior with my RAID setup. I used the Intel RAID to control 4 Seagate 7200.9 80 GB drives. But this was in Vista x86 RTM.
It worked fine for two days then died last night while I was using the system...