Adding new drives to a PoweEdge 2500 server

[techspl]

I have a dell poweredge 2500 server that has 4 drives configured as RAID 5 with one volume.(C: drive)
I would like to add two additional dives to make another volume (D: drive) and use Raid 0.
I have a few questions on how to proceed:
1) Do I need to shutdown the server and install the drives OR can I just plug them in?
2)Once installed, to get Windows 2000 to "see" drive, I would need to rescan the array, create a virtual disk and volume using the Array Manager right?
I just want to make sure I'm doing this right since this server is a very critical server.
Please comment as soon as possible.
Thanks

 

[Pritch5000]

Does anyone know info about the optimum ratio for the number of processors vs hard disks to ensure minimum processor idle time waiting for I/O requests.

thanks

 

[Pritch5000]

sorry meant to start a new post with my question.

in reply to yours though I would say...

Yes you can plug them in live and use the Array Manager to configure it provided your disks are hot-pluggable. But if this is mission critical, perhaps you would be better advised to make changes at other times like overnight or weekend.

I hope this reply doesnt lead you to blow up your server!