Quick Question regarding RAID5 setup

[PUN]

I currently have 1TB WD Black as storage. I have quite a bit of important data and want security. If I buy another 1TB WD Black and setup for raid5, do i need to temporarily move the files, wipe and install raid5? Or can I just add another drive and the datas sync?

Also, I have asus p6t which has easy raid feature...the manual states that raid0 will wipe all data, but it doesn't say anything about raid5. I am just wondering if i need to go through swapping files to setup raid5.

Thanks in advance.

 

[fleshconsumed]

1. You need at least 3 drives for RAID5
2. If you're going to be creating RAID5, yes you will need to backup your data first to another drive, and then move it back to RAID5
3. In your situation if would probably be easier to set up RAID 1 or mirroring.

 

[PUN]

Originally posted by: fleshconsumed
1. You need at least 3 drives for RAID5
2. If you're going to be creating RAID5, yes you will need to backup your data first to another drive, and then move it back to RAID5
3. In your situation if would probably be easier to set up RAID 1 or mirroring.

Raid 1 (just mirroring without much performance gain); can i just add a drive to it?
Should I use Asus DriveXpert or conventional raid1 setup?

 

[baddog60]

To answer your question directly, always backup your data before changing Raid configuration. As an alternative though, I would recommend an external drive to backup to. Better yet, get two external drives and keep one off premises.