How to change a mobo + RAID question?

[hito]

I was just thinking about the KT266A... As I'm planning to swap out my current motherboard and cpu for an upgrade. My question is what are the steps that I should follow to properly remove the old mobo and install a new mobo? As the drivers and all that so I don't get any problems or conflicts when I install the new one? Also I want to be able to save my data, as for now this is the only hard drive I have and nothing to back it up to, so I was just planning to just remove drive from the IDE channel on the mobo and reinsert the IDE cable on the new mobo. One last thing about the hard drive setup is that I plan to form a RAID 1 for data backup. Can I just insert the current drive on one of the RAID channels then just insert a fresh drive into the other channel? Do I have to format it beforehand before inserting it into the RAID channel?(The new drive that is) OR is this whole RAID thing not possible unless I have two fresh drives to begin with?

Current setup:

1.2GHz
MSI Pro2-A
WD800BB
512MB Crucial SDram
Creative GeForce 2 Ultra
SB Live! 5.1 X-Gamer
3com NIC
Acer 52x CD-ROM
Plextor 12/10/32
Teac 1.44

Planning to change:

1.2GHz ------> 1.4GHz
512MB Crucial SDram ---------> 512 Crucial DDR
MSI Pro2-A -------> To a KT266A mobo, don't know which as not too many reviews out yet...
WD800BB ----------> 2WD800BB (RAID 1)

 

[hito]

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