You may have probably heard the term RAID in computer terminology. RAID stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks. RAID was invented in 1988, there are different RAID levels available. RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10 (also known as RAID 1+0).
RAID 0 (striping)
This configuration is for fast read and writes speeds. The data is striped across the drives. RAID 0 is preferred by gamers due to its speed. If anyone of the disk fails, it is very hard to recover data from the remaining working disk. RAID 0 requires minimum 2 disks, the data is striped (split) evenly across all disks. RAID 0 offers fast read and write, but no redundancy. If one drive fails, all data is lost. The total storage capacity in RAID 0 is the sum of the storage capacities of the individual disks. Data is striped across hard drives for maximum write performance.
RAID 1 (Mirroring)
It is the replication of two or more discs (minimum two discs needed), here the exact copy is created on two or more disc. RAID 1 provides ‘fault tolerance’ if any one of the disks fails, the other will work. When we store data, it must be written to each drive, write speed depends on the slowest drive. RAID 1 is best for places where data loss is unacceptable. If one disk fails, data can still be recovered from the second disk. RAID 1 offers higher reliability due to redundancy. In RAID 1 the total storage capacity is the same as the size of one disk due to replication of data.
RAID 5 (Most common RAID)
RAID 5 uses disk striping with parity. RAID 5 balances read and write, RAID 5 requires minimum of 3 hard disks. RAID 5 provides RAID 0 performance with more redundancy.
RAID 10 (RAID 1+RAID 0)
This configuration needs four drives, it combines elements of RAID 0 and RAID 1. RAID 10 improves write performance.
