REVERTING RAID 0 to NON RAID...IS IT POSSIBLE?

[hoorruu]

Hello. I would really appreciate it if you can provide some expert knowledge on this matter.
If you have first hand experience with setting up/modifying RAID configuration on XPS Gen 3, please read on and help me out.

First, here is my system configuration:
XPS Gen 3 w/ P4 3.4 Ghz Extreme Edition
Windows XP Professional SP2
4 GB RAM (Needed for Heavy DV Editing and Transfering via Primiere & AfterEffect)
RAID 0 HDs (74GB X 2 as RAID 0)
Additional 160 GB Hard Drive for data storage
256 MB ATI X800 XT Video Card
1 X CD-RW
1 X DVD-RW

I originally ordered the system as configured above since Dell didn't give me the option to choose 2 X 10,000 RPM 74GB hard drives as NON RAID version if I also wanted to have 3rd data storage hard drive. What I actually wanted was to have 2 X10,000 RPM 74 GB HD NON RAID, PLUS 1 160 GB Hard drive for storage (OS installed on 1st 74 GB 10,000 RPM HD). However, I was not offered the option so I went with RAID 0.

But I am not really excited about RAID 0 after learning limited performance gain while increased opportunity of data loss and failure. Therefore, I would like to revert the RAID 0 configuration to NON RAID configuration if it is possible.

Looking at above, is it possible to originally RAID 0 configured 2 hard drives (74 GB HD X 2) back to 2 Seperate NON RAID Hard Drives? Please remember that I already have another hard drive. This would mean that I will end up with three seperate hard drives NON RAID if converted. Will XPS Gen 3 motherboard suppot three SATA hard drives configured as three hard drives instead of 2 hard drives (1 RAID 0 plus 1 NON RAID). Thank you.

[crusier]

The raid 0 should perform great for what your using it for and not have the old pci bottleneck to contend with. Just be sure to back it up.

[chipster2k]

I have a 74gb 10k rpm drive as my main and an 80 gb as secondary, no raid setup. So the gen 3 system can be configured how you want it and its not set in stone. I believe there is some setup for this in the bios and there might be a raid config utility. Problem is when you go from raid 0 to either raid 1 or no raid at all (3 separate drives), your data will be lost on the raid 0 drives. It will pretty much call for a reformat of the 2 drives after they have been split. You will probably have to use the backup cds to get win xp back. So be sure to backup what info you have on your pc since you've gotten it. For step by step instructions, maybe someone else can comment on this, or speak with dell tech support.

I think there is some information in the system manual, so check there first.

[devnull]

Run raid 5 if you have 3 drives. Itll save you trouble in the long run. It seems like you need some serious data integrity, so I wouldn't recommend the raid 0. There is not nearly enough performance gain to risk the data loss, espceically with 10k RPM drives. Raid 5 I believe is 2 drives in raid 0 and 1 that records enough data to recover either if they fail.