questions re: moving to a RAID config

[bill walton]

Greetings!  And apologies in advance if this is deemed to be off topic.
I'm looking for info and how-to links.

Background:
System is a 8.04 64-bit Ubuntu workstation install hosting VMware.  The
box currently has (I think) a single 500GB drive installed which is set
up as two 250GB partitions; one has Ubuntu/VMware installed on it and
the other is empty.  I want to move to a RAID configuration using two
(new) 500GB drives.

Questions:
1) Is there much chance of doing this other than via a fresh install of
everything?

2) Given that the hardware supports RAID, is there any advantage of
using a software raid solution?

TIA,
Bill