RAID 0 on XP Questions

[BIG$pender]

I recently got a Western Digital WD10000LSRTL 1TB HDD to use as a storage only drive, and i have dumped quite a bit of data onto it already. I now want to add another
identical drive in a RAID 0 configuration. Since these are not my boot drive i dont have to worry about the operating system, but i dont want to lose what i have already put on the first WD10000LSRTL.
so i have a few questions...

>>>I am running windows XP 32 bit SP3 btw<<<

1. can i create the raid array without losing what i have on the drive already?

2. I have an ASUS crosshair motherboard which has a RAID controller built in, so should i just use that, or should i buy a RAID card? whats the advantage of a RAID card?

3. Will i run into the MBR 2 TB limit? and how do i do a GPT partition? i have never seen this option.

4. I want to make sure i have this in the correct order.
-initialize each drive
-enable RAID in the BIOS for the 2 SATA ports i want to use
-use the NVIDIA RAID utility (F10 during post) to configure which drives are in the array, and set the RAID mode
-partition and format the array in windows

5. The NVIDIA RAID utility has a "striping block" option, with 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, and "optimal" settings, which should i use? and what are these settings?

6. I find it odd that Western Digital does not have this hard drive on its website, but its available on newegg, and at bestbuy, whats up with that?

thanks for your help.

 

[TGA]

I recently got a Western Digital WD10000LSRTL 1TB HDD to use as a storage only drive, and i have dumped quite a bit of data onto it already. I now want to add another
identical drive in a RAID 0 configuration. Since these are not my boot drive i dont have to worry about the operating system, but i dont want to lose what i have already put on the first WD10000LSRTL.
so i have a few questions...

>>>I am running windows XP 32 bit SP3 btw<<<

1. can i create the raid array without losing what i have on the drive already?

2. I have an ASUS crosshair motherboard which has a RAID controller built in, so should i just use that, or should i buy a RAID card? whats the advantage of a RAID card?

3. Will i run into the MBR 2 TB limit? and how do i do a GPT partition? i have never seen this option.

4. I want to make sure i have this in the correct order.
-initialize each drive
-enable RAID in the BIOS for the 2 SATA ports i want to use
-use the NVIDIA RAID utility (F10 during post) to configure which drives are in the array, and set the RAID mode
-partition and format the array in windows

5. The NVIDIA RAID utility has a "striping block" option, with 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, and "optimal" settings, which should i use? and what are these settings?

6. I find it odd that Western Digital does not have this hard drive on its website, but its available on newegg, and at bestbuy, whats up with that?

thanks for your help.

Well Intel Storage Matrix can build an array from a single drive but other then that I am rather sure you will loose any data on the drives when you build the array.

The rest I can't help you with but yes as long as your OS isn't contained on a drive you want to be in the array you can just boot in to windows and format it.

As for the drive on newegg that was easy.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136337

That said 2 1TB drives in raid 0 is alot of shit to back up and/or be lost should a drive fail.