Is enabling RAID safe with what I'm trying to do?

Question

i want to enable RAID, that way my 2 360 GB HDs merge into a 720GB. there is nothing on 1 of my 360GB, but on the other there is linux and vista. Is enabling RAID safe to do? what would be the outcome? will i get 1 720GB drive with linux and vista and 360GB of extra space?

Answer 1

By doing that, you double your chances of loosing everything.  If a single dirve dies in a "striped RAID" (Raid 0) situation) you will loose ALL of your data.  My suggestion is to move your linux partition to the new drive, leave the windows where it is and just run 2 seperate drives.  As a side-benefit, you can always use the linux side to "backup" that important data from the windows system, and vice-versa.

Another thing to remember is that your "raid controller" is most likely a software-based RAID, and linux probably will not support the resulting RAID, since it's not a true RAID controller.  (If you have an add-in "true" RAID controller like a 3-Ware, Adaptec etc. than this isn't the case, and it would "work")

Answer 2

you would end up with 720 GB drive with nothing on it. Using a RAID stripe is a bad idea anyway, because if anything happens to the image, you will loose all your data. There is very little, usually no performance boost to using a stripe array and a long list of disadvantages. The only possible advantage you might have is not having Vista on your hard drive.