An Introduction
to RAID


RAID technology is a confusing topic, especially for beginners in the computer building hobby. Why do we need RAID? What is RAID anyway? Well, it is because hard disk can fail.

  

Because hard disks can fail, RAID was invented to avoid some of the hard disk failure and performance problems out there.

RAID technology is also increasingly being used by even home computer owners. So it's advantageous for you to start learning this technology.

Let's go through this article and see what RAID really does. There are various levels of RAID - Level 0, Level 1 and Levels 2 to 5 - each has its own pros and cons. After reading, you'll certainly have a much better understanding of what RAID can and cannot do for you.

What is RAID?

RAID technology is formally called a Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAID). It was invented at the University of California at Berkeley by a group of researchers. An alternative name for RAID is Redundant Array of Independent Disks.
 

What RAID Does

Conceptually, what RAID does is to string together a bunch of hard disks in PCs and make them work together. Now, the final group of disks can give you better reliability and speed depending on which RAID setup you choose.

If you check around, you will find that there are up to 6 levels of RAID setup. These range from RAID Level 0 (write data to multiple disks for increase performance) to RAID Level 5 (write data for both performance and failure protection).
 

RAID Level 0

In RAID Level 0, the RAID host adapter sends one part of data to one hard disk and another part of the data to another hard disk. The advantage is that you get better capacity and performance. There is, however, no error correction. Use RAID 0 is in cases where you want faster performance, but not much emphasis on reliability of data.
 

RAID Level 1

RAID Level 1 is the other side of the coin compare to RAID Level 0. When your PC sends data to be written to the hard disk, the RAID adapter writes an identical image to each of two drives. If one drive fails, the other still has the complete data. This clearly sacrifices performance for data reliability.
 

RAID Level 2, Level 3, and Level 4

Now on to the other RAID levels. What RAID 2 is to add an error correction code to the written data so that if a disk fails, the data can be recovered. RAID 3 and RAID 4 are very similar to RAID 2, but they use different error correction codes and approaches.
 

RAID Level 5

Now RAID Level 5 is the ultimate. It includes both error correction and performance in its setup, so it is good for corporate or mission critical use. It gives the best of both worlds, fast performance and data reliability.
 

Conclusion

RAID technology can be difficult to understand, especially for the beginner. Do go through the above tips to understand it so that you can make better purchase decisions when building your next computer system.

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Related Articles

You may also wish to read the following related articles:

What causes a hard disk drive to fail
Learn how to install a primary hard drive
How to reinstall Windows without losing data
Learn 5 ways of saving and protecting your hard drive
Some information on choosing a good CD, DVD or hard drive
 


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