Single Core To Dual Core

[Gliding_Nut]

Oh Wise Ones,

I have a Gigabyte K8NXPSLI motherboard and I'm about to swap my existing single core 3500 for a dual core 4800 CPU.

Previous postings on here have said that you must update the BIOS first, however I have a concern that doing so may jeopardise my existing RAID O HDD set up. The Gigabyte Website says:-

BIOS
Download Version Date Description
Download from ... F11 2005/12/05 Update CPU code
NVIDIA RAID mode default from enable to disable
If your system already use RAID mode , please enable relative settings in bios first

Download from ... F10 2005/10/27 Update CPU microcode
NVIDIA RAID mode default from enable to disable
If your system already use RAID mode , please enable relative settings in bios first

Download from ... F7 2005/04/29 Update E stepping CPU

Download from ... F6 2004/12/30 BIOS update for DUAL GPU on single PCI-E Graphic card

I'm at work at the moment so cant check my BIOS versions, but would you assume from this that if I'm already at F6 version or above there is no need to update?

If not, do you think there is a risk that if I "enable relative settings in bios first" (whatever that means!) before updating the BIOS it may re-create my RAID 0 array and lose everything?

If so, it kinda makes my motives for not doing the full C2D re-build / upgrade now a bit questionable....

Sagely words of wisdom appreciated as always please.

Thanks.

 

[Gliding_Nut]

Thanks guys for the hints.

Can you recommend any software or tell me how to go about making an image of the disks, bearing in mind they're two 300Gb drives so 600Gb in total?

I've several external drives but none circa 500 - 600Gb in size.

Thanks,