How to upgrade another sata drive using raid 0, 1, 5

[jpatia]

How should I upgrade another sata drive using raid 0?

I currently have a 300G sata2 drive loaded with operating system and stuff.

I would like to purchase another 300G sata2 drive and install it into my current system with a raid 0 setup.

I would like to (in the future) have raid 5, but because i will only have 2 drives i will have to settle for raid 0 (do not want raid 1).

Objective: Install 2nd hard drive.
Setup for raid 0 (stripping), without having to reformat the 'drives' and reinstalling windows.

Question: Can I install the extra drives and setup as raid 0 without having to reformat main drive (the one with Operating System on it).

or

Can I only install 2nd drive and format both drives then install a new OS on it.

any other options avaliable to me. Do not want to lose data on main drive/do not want to back up then reinstall.

thanks in advanced

 

[bing]

Since you didn't mention your rig details, assuming your mobo has one of this chips -> HERE

Then yes, you can migrate directly from single to multiple drives raid 0/1/5 without worrying too much about your current OS & data, just check the details on above page since different SB chips have different capabilities.

Btw, "Raid Ready" means single drive with the Intel Raid driver installed, thats it !

Again, assuming you have the ICHxR in the mobo, other options which might be a bit painful in backup/reinstall OS but will give you the best performance with comparable data integrity/security than just plain raid 0/1/5. It is called Matrix Raid, just click on my sig's smiley for the details !

 

[jpatia]

sorry I have a dfi nf4 sli dr motherboard. have added system to sig.