Got 2nd 500GB HDD want to build RAID 0 but.....

[bitmonx]

I got a Seagate SATA2 500GB that has about 200GB of files on it. Got a 2nd Seagate SATA2 500GB and want to setup a RAID 1. Can I do a fresh install of Vista on the new Drive (my "old" Seagate is all messed up with partition C, which is too small, only 20GB...), transfer files from the old HDD to the new HDD and THEN set up RAID, or do both drives have to be fromated? As far as I remember in RAID 1 this must be possible to have one drive with files on it and then start the RAID process?
I used to have an ASUS P4C800E Deluxe mobo and played around with RAID but had nothing but problems with it, very unstable, RAID drivers failed after a week or 2. I have an ASUS P5N-D mobo now. Did the RAID get any better now than say 4 years ago?
If any of you is willing to give me step by step advice on how to set up a RAID 1, i use my PC almost exclusively for gaming and storing music files.

Thanks for help

Cheers

 

[Zecow]

I wouldn't recommend doing a raid 1. Windows access the hdd more than you are aware of. Mirroring the hdd puts a strain on your raid array for no reason. My home server I've setup Windows on a separate hdd (1 drive) and mirror another set of drives (2 drives) for my data. The reason is that with all the paging going on, it will only be on the primary drive while the raid array will mirror what is important and will not do much read/writes as the page file is on the primary drive.
On my personal rig, I dont touch raid - I have 3x500GB hdd - one for storing files, 1 for backup and 1 partitioned in half for my OS and misc. data. I had a bad exp. of raid 1 failing on both drives.. .thats when I stopped using it on my personal pc.
for raid setup this might help: http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=830&page=1

 

[runswindows95]

Personally, this is how I'm set up and will always set up my hard drives:

Drive #1 - OS and programs
Drive #2 - Data.

 

[GunnTech]

I would say that if you want to use raid I would format the HDD with data on it (after moving data I needed) and start fresh and move the data back after you have loaded the OS on a fresh RAID.