RAID 0 and RAID 1 are the two simplest RAID levels, and both offer advantages and disadvantages; they can also be combined to form RAID 10, or RAID 1+0.
RAID, which stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks, combines two or more hard drives to form a single storage unit, offering increased capacity, speed, redundancy, or a combination of these. The RAID level is set by the RAID controller, which controls how your data is stored. If you’ve found yourself working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, or you have staff who are working from home, you might want to consider a RAID solution.
RAID 0, also known as striping, is perhaps RAID in its purest form. RAID 0 turns two or more hard drives into a single drive, which more storage and faster speeds. What you end up with is the sum of its parts. If you use two drives, you have double the number of platters, and double the number of read/write heads; because all of the heads are working in tandem, read/write speeds are faster. However, because data is striped across all disks in the array, if one drive fails, your data is lost. If you’re backing up regularly, this might not be too much of a problem, but it’s risky otherwise. The more drives in a RAID 0 array, the greater the chance of failure.
RAID 1, or mirroring, offers data redundancy along with increased read speeds. As the name suggests, data is mirrored across both or all drives in the array, meaning that if one drive fails, there is at least one safe copy stored on another drive. Read speeds are improved, too, due to multiple sets of heads in use, but write speeds are slower, as data needs to be written to each drive. The main disadvantage of RAID 1 is capacity – the user is limited to the storage capacity of one drive.
RAID 1 and RAID 0 are both very simple forms of RAID, but they can be combined into what’s known as RAID 10, or RAID 1+0. RAID 10 requires at least four hard disk drives, and data is striped and mirrored to paired drive. As long as one disk in each mirrored pair is operational, the user’s data is safe. It also provides enhanced performance, but the total storage capacity is limited due to the mirroring component.
