2nd HD Temporary Raid Config

Hello All,

new here and I've searched, but not found the exact situation. I have avg. knowledge regarding computers

I am buying the WD Raptor 74GB SATA HD

Eventually I want to operate in Raid0, but since my first HD died and I had to RMA it, I was out of service for awhile and want to avoid that again.

So, please see if I have this right: install new HD; Implement Raid0; After feeling secure about new HD not failing, implement Raid1.

Although I have read a lot about RAID, I have never actually worked with it. I have Promise Controller and can access it at boot. (not sure about changing sectors?) I'm sure somewhere here will have good directions so I'll search for that. But, if anyone would care to state how "you" would handle this project, please do so.

I assume Raid1 will keep everything the same as I have it now, only diff is 2 HDs. When I want to change to Raid0, should I format 1st HD, then XP on that. How do I get rid of XP on new HD?

I built (first time) computer in Dec 2003 and it has the following:

XP Home Ed

SOLTEK SL-75FRN2-RL Socket A (Socket 462) NVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400 ATX

AMD Athlon XP 2500+ Barton 333MHz FSB Socket A

Western Digital Raptor WD360GD 36.7GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150

(3) Kingston ValueRAM 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 333 (PC 2700)

GIGABYTE GV-R92128DH Radeon 9200 128MB DDR AGP 4X/8X

Antec Performance II SX1040BII Black Steel SOHO File Server 400W

Thanks for opinions.


Nello