We’ve discussed, RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5 and RAID 6, now it’s time to take a look at yet another RAID level – RAID 10. But what is RAID 10? Put simply, it combines disk mirroring and disk striping, and is also known as RAID 1+0.
RAID 0 and 1 are the most basic of RAID levels. RAID 0 uses disk striping, which breaks up all of your data and spreads it across all the drives in the array. However, there is no fault tolerance – so if one drive fails, the entire RAID fails. RAID 1 uses disk mirroring to duplicate data across the drives in the array, typically only two. You’re left with a system with fault tolerance, but no speed or capacity improvements. RAID 10, also known as RAID 1+0, aims to offer the best of both worlds – increased capacity and fault tolerance.
A RAID 10 array requires at least four hard disks, and not only is data striped, it’s mirrored to paired drives. As long as one disk in each mirrored pair is operational, RAID data recovery is possible. RAID 10 provides redundancy as well as performance, and is the best option for systems with high read/write operations. One disadvantage is that only 50% of the total hard disk drive capacity is useable due to the mirroring. Another is that if two disks in the same mirrored pair fails, all of your data will be lost.
If this happens, Data Recovery Specialists will provide a RAID data recovery service with a free diagnosis to se if we can recover any data from your RAID 10 system. It’s important to provide all drives in the array, including the RAID enclosure and controller card.
