What is RAID?
Redundant Array of Independent Disks.
This is help me to combine two or more hard drives so that your computer or server looks at them as one big drive.
Why use RAID?
- It makes data access faster (speed).
- It protect to data if one drive fails (redundancy).
Some RAID are faster, some are safer, and some give you both. But each type also has business related.
Let’s take a look at three common RAID setups: RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 10
RAID 0 (Striping)
RAID 0 splits your data into blocks and spreads it across two or more drives.
This makes reading and writing very fast, since multiple drives are working at the same time.
Key points:
. Minimum 2 Disk.
. Its blocks are striped.
. No mirror, No parity.
. Do not use it for any critical systems.
👍 Advantages:
- Max speed for both reading and writing.
- Full use of storage (2 x 1TB = 2TB).
👎 Disadvantages:
- No safe for imp. Data. If one drive fails, all data will be lost.
- Its good only when data can be backed up or is not important (like cache files or temp files).
RAID 1 (Mirroring)
It makes an exact copy of your data on two drives.
If one drive stops working, then the other has the same data.
Key points:
. Minimum 2 Disk
. No striping No parity
. Robust data protection
👍 Advantages:
- This is safe – if one disk fails, data is still there.
- Reading can be a bit faster, both drives have same data.
👎 Disadvantages:
- Uses double the space (2 x 1TB = only 1TB usable).
- Writing can be slightly slower because it must write to both drives.
RAID 5 (Striping with Parity)
RAID 5 splits your data into blocks and also stores parity information across all drives.
This parity allows the system to rebuild data if one drive fails.
It gives a good balance of speed, storage efficiency, and safety.- Key Points:
. Minimum 3 Disks
. Data blocks + distributed parity
. Balance of performance and redundancy - 👍 Advantages:
• Efficient storage use (e.g., 3 x 1TB = 2TB usable).
• Can survive one disk failure without data loss.
• Read speed is fast, good for general use servers. - 👎 Disadvantages:
• Write speed is slower due to parity calculation.
• If more than one drive fails, all data will be lost.
• Rebuild time after a disk failure can be long.
RAID 10 (Stripe + Mirror)
It combines the best of RAID 0 and RAID 1.
- First, it makes mirrors for safety.
- Then, it stripes across those mirrors for speed.
Key Points:
. Minimum 4 Disks.
. This is also known as “stripe of mirrors”.
. Robust performance.
. Robust redundancy.
👍 Advantages:
- Both speed and safety.
- Great for databases and applications needing high performance and reliability.
👎 Disadvantages:
- Needs at least 4 drives.
- More costly because of mirroring.
- Rarely used today.
Conclusion
RAID 0 → Max speed, no safety.
RAID 1 → Max safety, less storage.
RAID 5 → Good balance of speed, storage efficiency, and safety
RAID 10 → Mix of speed and safety.
You can suck the RAID as per your convenience: speed, safety, or both.