RAID for OS drive failing

I jumped through the correct hoops to make this work once, and was fully up and running for a month or so. Then a Windows Critical Update (x3) caused blue screens to appear several times a day. At one point, I went into the BIOS and reset to all defaults. Which I think removed the "magic" that had allowed my two RAID-striped SSDs to act as a single logical system drive, fed by the two 6GB/s SATA cables from the MB. When it was working, it was blazingly fast! Sadly, the guru that led me through the whole setup the first time is no longer here.
The failure mode: very long wait with B4 in lowest righthand part of black screen. Then the MSI image flashes for an instant and black screen again, saying only "Missing operating system".
I've booted off the Win 7 Ult. installation DVD and reinstalled both the iaAHCI and iastor drivers. Under Advanced Boot options, Intel(R) Rapid Start Technology is Enabled. But I suspect there's something else I need to do in the BIOS with Rapid Start. The same screen where you enable RST says "No valid iFFS partition found." Not sure what that means.
Can anyone please help me?
Thanks.

Thanks for the note. It was just enough info to get me over the hump. I had to search the BIOS to find the place to set the HD mode to "RAID", but after a few minutes I found it. Thanks for the tip!
Sorry about not following the posting guidelines, I've been fighting a bad cold, but that's no excuse. I have a Z77A-G41 with an Intel i5-3570 Sandybridge CPU. No GPU. 16GB RAM, Win 7 Ultimate. Now I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I don't get a recurrance of the many blue screens-a-day problem that brought on the meltdown in the first place. 
Cheers!

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    RAID for Consumer PCs
    Table of Contents
    RAID
    RAID 0
    RAID 1
    RAID 5
    RAID 10 (0+1)
    INTEL Controller Support for Different RAID Configurations
    Background Information for Creating a RAID configuration.
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    Performance comparisons
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    Creating a RAID 5 Array
    Creating a RAID 10 (0+1) Array
    Conversion from RAID 0 to RAID 5
    RAID 0 to RAID 5 Observations
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    *************DISCLAIMER***********
    RAID
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    RAID 1
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    RAID 10 (0+1)
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    INTEL Controller Support for Different RAID Configurations.
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    Background Information for Creating a RAID configuration.
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    The system board has the necessary open SATA port(s) if needed.
    A SATA controller that can support the desired RAID configuration.
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    If the SATA controller in your PC is not set to RAID then read this Microsoft article if you are running VISTA or Windows 7.  You need to run the MrFixIT script before you reboot your PC in the bios and make the SATA controller mode change to RAID.  The script will then allow Windows to choose the correct driver when you reboot your PC.  If you plan on using a boot drive image restore then be sure to run the script just prior to making taking your image backup.  That way your backup image is set to allow Windows to choose the correct SATA driver.
    Before creating any RAID configuration, always make backups of your data and image the boot hard disk to external media such as an USB drive.  Additionally, be sure that your imaging product boot disk is functional, particularly if the PC’s boot hard disk is part of the RAID configuration.  Its best to use a commercial hard disk imaging product as support and functionality is generally better than the “freebie” software.
    Be sure that your PC is running the latest available BIOS.  BIOS updates are used to update the Intel ROM firmware.  Additionally, check for hard drive and SSD firmware updates.
    Summary of preparation steps in priority order:
    Backup your data.
    Test out your recovery and restore procedures.
    Update the following: BIOS, hard drive firmware, SSD firmware
    Update IRST
    Execute the Microsoft MrFixIt if your PC is not set to RAID mode in the bios.
    Create an image of your boot hard drive.
    Considerations:
    After replacing a failed hard drive, don’t expect the rebuild process to be fast.  All of the data that existed on the failed hard drive must be either regenerated using parity data or replicated to the new hard drive.
    I recommend that you use an uninterruptable power supply (UPS) when using RAID 5. Cached write data needs to be written to hard drive in the event of a power failure to avoid the loss of data.  You might want to consider disabling write back cache if you are not using an UPS. There is a performance reduction by doing so at the expense of improving data integrity.
    If you need a RAID array over 2 TB then your PC needs: UEFI bios, 64 bit operating system, GPT formated hard drives.  Review this Microsoft article on Windows and GPT FAQs.
    Since a MBR formated array will limit the useable space to 2 TB it’s therefore best to use hard drives that are 1 TB or less for RAID 0, 5 and 10.
    Consider the data growth rate and the size of the array.  The Intel controller will limit the number of hard drives.  The size of the PC cabinet and available system board SATA ports will also be growth constraints.  It’s not uncommon for a business to experience an annual data growth rate of 20 percent.
    If you need a RAID solution beyond the typical consumer level RAID configurations, then you should review the RAID options available from HP.
    RAID technology in not infalible so you need to consider backups.  A voltage spike inside your PC could render the RAID unusable and unrecoverable.  Corrupted data or a virus are other reasons for keeping backups.  An external USB connected hard drive might be sufficient for backups.
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    Performance comparisons:
    All of the hard drives benchmarked are Hitachi 1.5 TB SATA III hard drives connected as SATA II devices.  HD Tune was used to benchmark the seniaros using default settings.
    Configuration
    Average MB/s
    Maximum MB/s
    Single hard drive
    113
    152
    RAID 0
    222
    289
    RAID 1
    104
    142
    RAID 5
    221
    288
    RAID 10 (0+1)
    220
    274
    Creating a RAID 0 Array.
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    Creating a RAID 10 (0+1) Array.
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    *********updated August 21, 2013
    If you are using SSDs in a RAID 0 configuration then you will need to have the Intel 7 or 8 chipset plus Intel Rapid Storage Technology (IRST) version 11 or higher to get Windows TRIM support to function. The latest version of IRST as of 8/21/2013 that I have seen is 12.7.1036.
    *************DISCLAIMER***********
    There may be inaccuracies with the information contained in this document so please consider that when using RAID.
    *************DISCLAIMER***********
    HP DV9700, t9300, Nvidia 8600, 4GB, Crucial C300 128GB SSD
    HP Photosmart Premium C309G, HP Photosmart 6520
    HP Touchpad, HP Chromebook 11
    Custom i7-4770k,Z-87, 8GB, Vertex 3 SSD, Samsung EVO SSD, Corsair HX650,GTX 760
    Custom i7-4790k,Z-97, 16GB, Vertex 3 SSD, Plextor M.2 SSD, Samsung EVO SSD, Corsair HX650, GTX 660TI
    Windows 7/8 UEFI/Legacy mode, MBR/GPT
    Attachments:
    RAID for Consumer PCs.doc ‏3761 KB

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