Convert Existing Win7 Machine to FreeNAS

[noodlenoggan]

Hi all, I'm new to FreeNAS and would appreciate some advice on how to best approach my problem. I've read about adding addition drives later on by creating pools of drives and then later group them together. I understand it's not the same effect as if I had originally created the pool with all of the drives at the beginning. The reason for creating these pools is because I currently have data spread out on the drives and can't offload them all to create one single pool from the start.

My number one concern is redundancy.

I currently have a Win7 machine with 10 HDs. Each drive currently has data but I think I can consolidate them off at least three 2TB drives. To start, I'd have 3x2TB empty drives.

3 x 2TB (pool 1)
3 x 1.5TB (pool 2)
4 x 1TB (pool 3)

Would my understanding be correct that I should just create the three drive capacities above as individual pools and then have FreeNAS join(I'm not using the correct term here) them?

Here's what I'm thinking I should do:
-create the first pool using the 3x2TB (call it pool 1)
-transfer the data off the 3x1.5TB to pool 1
-create a 2nd pool with now emptied 3x1.5TB and combine it to pool 1
-transfer the data off the 1TB to the existing pool of 1.5TB and 2TB combo
-create a pool of the 1TB and add it to the existing pool

Can I transfer the data off the 1.5TB and 1TB drives into the existing pools without pulling them out of the PC to be placed in another PC and manually copy them out? Once they have been emptied, put the drive(s) back into FreeNAS and create the additional pool(s)?

Thanks!