I've built computers for quite some time now but I've never really payed any attention to RAID. Now that I've started to get curious about it, I have a stupid question that I should already have known quite a while ago.
So, can someone explain RAID and the advantages of it to me in reasonably basic terms?
Here you go
[url]http://lmgtfy.com/?q=What+is+RAID+and+how+do+I+use+it[/url]
[QUOTE=ferrus;19827395]Here you go
[url]http://lmgtfy.com/?q=What+is+RAID+and+how+do+I+use+it[/url][/QUOTE]
Wow.
I know relatively little about RAID myself. The two types of RAID I've looked at are RAID 0 and RAID 1.
RAID 0 combines 2 or more hard drives to appear as one drive to your OS, whenever data is written to the hard drives the writes are spread between both drives (in 'stripes'). In theory this would double the speed of reading and writing (assuming identical drives are being used). However if one disk fails, you're screwed.
RAID 1 is basically used to make your data a little more secure. Two hard drives are again combined to appear as one. Whenever you write to the drives you get two copies of the data, one on each drive. In the case that one drive fails the other will be readable. The problem with this setup, however, is that you get half the disk space you should have (if you set two 60GB drives up in RAID 1, you'll only have 60GB total to play with.)
[QUOTE=Execro;19830067]I know relatively little about RAID myself. The two types of RAID I've looked at are RAID 0 and RAID 1.
RAID 0 combines 2 or more hard drives to appear as one drive to your OS, whenever data is written to the hard drives the writes are spread between both drives (in 'stripes'). In theory this would double the speed of reading and writing (assuming identical drives are being used). However if one disk fails, you're screwed.
RAID 1 is basically used to make your data a little more secure. Two hard drives are again combined to appear as one. Whenever you write to the drives you get two copies of the data, one on each drive. In the case that one drive fails the other will be readable. The problem with this setup, however, is that you get half the disk space you should have (if you set two 60GB drives up in RAID 1, you'll only have 60GB total to play with.)[/QUOTE]
If I ever did a RAID setup I'd probably go with RAID 1, as it seems to provide a better read time. I don't care much about write times, I just wouldn't mind games loading a little faster. :v:
To be honest, in normal use you wouldn't see the difference in access times with RAID 1 in the same way you wouldn't with a 10KRPM hard drive. The only solution I've used to increase access times noticeably is by using SSDs.
RAID 0 only increases the speed of large sequential writes, small random writes are what makes your computer seem slow.
To anyone reading this thread thinking that RAID 1 will replace backups, don't. It doesn't replace the need for making regular backups as it cannot save you from data corruption via software (Viruses etc.) and accidental deletion.
you don't need raid for home use unless you need to make sure your data is not lost and you are working with very large files
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