RAID is a great way to protect your data. Here we explain why.
If you have an important file or can’t afford to lose certain data, RAID is great way to ensure that this information isn’t lost. Here we at ProStorage will explain what RAID is, and how it’ll keep you safe from losing any critical information.
What is RAID?
In a nutshell, RAID is technology that links together two or more hard drives. By doing so, it stores data on multiple drives, ensuring that if one hard drive fails the other won’t. RAID (Redundant Array Independent Disks) is widely used on servers and high end systems. Many PC systems now include a RAID controller that lets two or more drives to be linked together operating as a single device. This is an especially beneficial tool for things such as editing high quality video.
RAID Options Available
There are a number of different RAID options, each able to serve a different purpose. Here we’ll highlight those options, as well as describe what they do.
RAID 0
There are a number of options available when setting up RAID storage. The first and the most basic of systems, is called RAID 0. This particular version of RAID divides or strips the data in a storage volume across two or more discs with half of the information written to one disc, and the other half to the other disc. Doing so improves both read and write performance. RAID 0 is commonly used for video editing work stations.
RAID 1
In contrast to RAID 0, RAID 1 is primarily intended to protect data from hardware failure. Here data is duplicated across two or more discs, so that if one drive fails there is still a copy of its contents on another drive. However, doing so means that hard drive storage is sacrificed. This also means that write performance is not improved under RAID 1, but the data read times are increased as multiple files can be accessed simultaneously.
RAID 5
If you find yourself using three or more drives, RAID 5 is great because it is able to strike a balance between speed and redundancy. It’s able to do by splitting data across two drives, but also writing parity data to a third drive. Parity data records differences between blocks of data on other drives, therefore committing file restoration in the event of drive failure.
Raid 10
RAID 10 is the most heavy duty system we will discuss (although, not as commonly used). With the ability to strip and mirror data across four or more drives, RAID 10 provides the benchmark in performance and redundancy.
While technology and hard drive performance continues to improve, RAID is still very effective for any building servers or high end work sanctions. In order to determine whether RAID is right for you, ask yourself whether or not you could afford to lose certain data? If the answer is no, chances are you need RAID.
Continue to browse our website for more information on RAID and our other data archiving services.