RAID 0:

• The lowest designated level of RAID, level 0, is actually not a valid type of RAID. It was given the designation of level 0 because it fails to provide any level of redundancy for the data stored in the array. Thus, if one of the DRIVES fails, all the data is damaged.
• RAID 0 uses a method called striping. Striping takes a single chunk of data LIKE a graphic image, and SPREADS that data across multiple drives. The advantage that striping has is in improved performance. Twice the amount of data can be written in a given time frame to the two drives compared to that same data being written to a single drive.

RAID 1:

RAID version 1 was the first real implementation of RAID. It provides a simple form of redundancy for data through a process called MIRRORING. This form typically requires two individual drives of SIMILAR capacity. One drive is the active drive and the secondary drive is the mirror. When data is written to the active drive, the same data is written to the mirror drive.

RAID 5:

This is the most powerful form of RAID that can be found in a desktop computer system. Typically it requires the form of a hardware controller card to manage the array, but some desktop operating systems can create these via software. This method uses a form of striping with parity to maintain data redundancy. A minimum of three drives is required to build a RAID 5 array and they should be identical drives for the best performance.

RAID 0:

RAID 1:

RAID version 1 was the first real implementation of RAID. It provides a simple form of redundancy for data through a process called mirroring. This form typically requires two individual drives of similar capacity. One drive is the active drive and the secondary drive is the mirror. When data is written to the active drive, the same data is written to the mirror drive.

RAID 5:

This is the most powerful form of RAID that can be found in a desktop computer system. Typically it requires the form of a hardware controller card to manage the array, but some desktop operating systems can create these via software. This method uses a form of striping with parity to maintain data redundancy. A minimum of three drives is required to build a RAID 5 array and they should be identical drives for the best performance.