RAID 1 to RAID 5?

[Whitebread]

I'd like to build myself a RAID 5 array with 3 1TB drives but I dont want to spend all the money for 3 drives and a controller card right now. My motherboard is capable of setting up and maintaining a RAID 1 array in hardware, which I'd like to use with 2 1TB drives until I can afford to purchase the controller card and third drive. Will I be able to transfer the 2 older 1TB drives to the RAID card along with the third 1TB drive and build a RAID 5 array without losing data?

Thanks

 

[[LYL]Homer]

No, there's no way to migrate your data. You'll need to start the RAID 5 array from scratch and have some other area to temporarily store your data. But that could be your backup setup, hint hint.

 

[Whitebread]

The data is already spread across 3 drives with no redundancy. I need to transfer it to an array with redundancy. I'll just have to bit the bullet and blow the 600 dollars on parts now.