Clearing up some misunderstandings:
1) both hard disks are physically fine. Both passed the testing performed by the "Hard Disk Diagnostics" boot menu option. I understand that you can't fix a physically inoperative disk by installing software on it.
2) the two hard disks are the exact same model
3) I have multiple image backups of the entire disk, and separate image backups of the individual partitions.
4) I have a backup of the MBR using Dan Goodell's MBRSAVER program
5) I do not have any Windows installation media for this machine. That is why I do not want to destroy the ability to restore using the factory image in the DellRestore partition. Even if I had Windows installation media, I don't want to have to hunt for all the machine-specific drivers and figure what order in which to install them. Been there, done that on other machines, don't want a repeat experience.
6) I don't think I need to download or install any "F6 drivers". They should already be in the factory image, since the machine was shipped from the factory with these very disks in RAID Level 1.
7) I have filesystem-level backups of the data
8) The disks are presently NOT in a RAID volume. They show up as individual disks in the boot menu (F12), in the BIOS setup (F2), and in the Intel Option ROM screen (CTRL-I).
9) Disk0 has been restored to factory condition using CTRL-F11 to access the factory image in the DellRestore partition. Disk1 is presently unreadable, not because of any physical reason, but because the MBR got trashed earlier and I have not yet restored it.
10) Both disks are physically connected to their respective power and data lines, in the original factory configuration.
11) The orginal factory setting in system BIOS for RAID was "RAID Auto".
12) I get the BSOD with the "STOP 7B" code when I set the RAID to "AUTO" in the BIOS. When I set the RAID to "ON" in the BIOS, the machine boots and operates normally. I would like to understand why this is.