Can you setup an RAID 5 without losing data?

[pood]

I currently have 1 TB drive that is partitioned to 3 smaller partitions.

I plan to buy 2 more 2 TB drives and start a RAID 5.

When I setup RAID 1 for 2 of my other hardrives, I had to wipe both drives.

Will I need to wipe the current 1 TB drive if I want to do RAID 5? Will I also need to convert the 3 partitions back into 1?

 

[bigi]

It depends on the controller that you use.
In any case, I'd not do it like you have planned. I'd backup the 1st drive anyway, create new RAID5 setup and restore the backup(s)