Do you really want RAID enabled?

Do you really want RAID enabled?

Probably that answer is no.
First, RAID can only enabled if you purchase 2 hard drives and purchase Windows XP . Otherwise, you can set RAID up yourself before you install Windows.
Second, RAID requires hard drives of the same size (if not, then it will ignore the extra size on the larger drive), and the drives should really be the same speed for optimal results.
Third, RAID adds an extra layer of complexity and ties the hard drives to the laptop (data is only readable when drive is connected to the laptop).

RAID 0 (Performance):
Advantage:

• Approx. 70% faster than the single drive when reading and about 30% faster when writing.

Disadvantage:

• If one hard drive fails, all data is lost

RAID 1 (Reliability)
Advantage:

• If one hard drive fails, no data is lost and no downtime is experienced.

Disadvantages:

• Approximately 30% performance hit when writing to the array. Minimal penalty for reading.
• Since the contents of the first drive are stored identically on the second, the size of the array is the same size as a single hard drive
• Related to that -- the hard drives will do writes together, making the double the noise.

For most people, the performance win of RAID 0 does not make up for the extra complexity and greater risk to your data. For instance, a single 60GB 7200rpm hard drive is faster than a RAID 0 array of 2 40GB 4200rpm hard drives.

Conversely, for most people, the reliability of RAID 1 is unnecessary. Simply copying over the 1-5GB or less of data that needs to be backed up is a much better solution since it allows you to still take advantage of all the extra space available. If one of the drives crash, then you can reinstall Windows and copy your backed up data back to the drive and continue on. This approach also allows you to get a faster, more expensive hard drive as the primary drive and a cheaper, slower drive as the secondary drive (because its primary purpose is storage). And, if you make a mistake, you still have the backup rather than an identical copy of your mistake.