Help with my RAID config

Question

I've got a 250GB SATA2 hard drive. Yesterday I boughy myself a pair of 1TB HDDs which I intend to put into a RAID-1.

If I enable the RAID functionality in the BIOS, I can setup the two drives in a RAID-1 without a problem. However, I can't see the old 250GB hard drive from the BIOS anymore, only the newly made RAID. It seems I need to make a JBOD from it. This however, will erase its data, won't it? So I was wondering, if you know whether typically one can have 2 drives in a RAID while having 1 not in a RAID. I presume, it's got something to do with my BIOS. My mobo is a M2N-X, sporting a nForce 520.

Of course, I can also make a software RAID from within my Windows 7, but will the software array work under Ubuntu? I somewhat doubt it but I don't know anyway.

Answer 1

Yes, it's your BIOS. You can either have RAID or No RAID, not a combination of both.

There is nothing to stop you using software RAID, if you give it a bit of thought and planning beforehand.

Partition both drives exactly the same, with the exact same arrangement of windows & linux partitions, then use software RAID to mirror the partitions not the drives.