Converting RAIDs

[nelly22]

I have external backup hard drive with lots of data and i want to buy another drive and then setup mirrored RAID, do i have to backup old data out of old drive first?

Also if i have mirrored RAID then can i later convert it to some other type of RAID without losing data?

 

[Thiol]

I have external backup hard drive with lots of data and i want to buy another drive and then setup mirrored RAID, do i have to backup old data out of old drive first?

Also if i have mirrored RAID then can i later convert it to some other type of RAID without losing data?

Yes to backing old data out of old drive first.

No to converting it to some other type of RAID without losing data.

A sort of exception to the latter is the Drobo, which allows you to add drives and increase capacity without reformatting the RAID setup.