SysAdmin Corner: Demystifying RAID @ Techgage

Posted on Monday, September 24 2012 @ 9:35 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
Techgage explains what RAID is all about, exploring all the options and discussing the possible dangers. You can read their guide over here.
RAID stands for "Redundant Array of Independent Disks." This brings up the first point - RAID is for redundancy; NOT A BACKUP! This is, above all, Rule 0 of RAID.

Say it with me, people: RAID is NOT a backup.

So if it's not a backup, what is it? A RAID array is a group of hard drives that are treated as if they are one congruous file system. That filesystem does one or both of the following: speeds up read/write access (which is called striping) by spreading a single file over multiple disks, and provides fault tolerance, which is the ability for one or more disks to fail without losing all of your stuff by writing the same information (or a checksum, called 'parity') to more than one disk (called mirroring).


About the Author

Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.



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