RAID systems take multiple disks and combine them into a single storage unit, giving the user increased performance, capacity and fault tolerance. RAID 0 is the lowest level of RAID configuration, but offers the least amount of data protection.
RAID 0 is a common configuration that is used primarily for greater performance, and uses two hard drives. An array with two hard disk drives is doubly as fast as a single drive, as it can perform double the amount of read/write operations at once. The data is split across both (or all) of the drives in the array, and the user also gets a higher capacity storage unit too; this process is known as disk striping. The downside, however, is that if one drive fails, you lose your data – with RAID data recovery your only option. When you write a file to a RAID 0 system, the data is split up into blocks and striped across the drives. When you need to access the file, all the drives work together, allowing you to access it faster.
Generally, users with more than two drives opt for a different RAID configuration. Although RAID 0 offers a faster drive with a greater capacity, it has a major shortcoming when compared to other configurations. Whereas RAID 1, 5, 6 and 10 use some of the storage capacity to provide data redundancy, RAID 0 doesn’t. With other configurations, if one drive fails, data recovery is simple. But RAID 0 has no redundancy, so the array will fail even if a single drive crashes. Your data is more at risk in a RAID 0 system than in any other configuration, even a single hard drive.
Unlike other RAID configurations, RAID 0 offers no redundancy. RAID data recovery from a RAID 0 system involves repairing and getting the failed drive(s) up and running again, and then cloning and extracting the data from the complete array. While data recovery attempts can be made on arrays with failed disks, it’s likely only very small files will be recoverable. Because RAID manufacturers differ massively in terms of design and build, RAID data recovery techniques require years of development. RAID 0 is only a valuable solution for speed enhancement if you’re willing to increase the risk of failure, which is very risky.
