Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) configurations can be tempting for those of us who enjoy technology, but they do have their drawbacks. Before you invest hundreds of dollars on a RAID controller and multiple drives, weigh the pros and cons.
For many PC users, the attraction of RAID comes down to performance: With the striping method used by RAID Level 0, most files are spread across two or more drives. This increases performance in the same way splitting up chores hastens progress. With two or more drives working concurrently on data that's normally handled by one drive, effective drive performance increases dramatically. This won't likely make everyday business applications or even most games run much faster, but you should notice your system booting more quickly and your software loading much faster. The biggest payoff is with storage-intensive applications such as video editing.
The chief drawback of RAID 0 is a higher risk of data loss. RAID 0 makes no allowances for data redundancy, so if one drive fails, you lose the data on both. When using two drives, you effectively double your risk of drive failure.
RAID 1 achieves nearly the antithesis of RAID 0: Every file written to one drive is automatically written to a second. This ensures that no data is lost should either of the two drives fail. Performance, however, changes little or is no better than with one drive.
Some RAID controllers or software let you combine the performance of RAID 0 and the safety of RAID 1 using both techniques at once, often referred to as RAID 0+1, RAID 01, or RAID 10. With this approach, however, you'll need at least four drives. High-end cards offer support for RAID 5 arrays, which offer both data redundancy and increased performance by combining striping with data parity. These arrays require a minimum of three hard drives.
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