As some of you may recall I had meant to post this very thing around March... well, here it is July and it's finally starting to get put up. I blame this on a combination of work, school, and losing the folder I had 3 of these posts already written in. And Neptune, that planet's never done anything for me.
I won't call my posts as thorough on the topic as an RFC - RFCs exist for a reason and are freely available. My goal here is to provide an understanding of the various RAID levels in enough detail that the average OCer can understand the pitfalls of RAID-0, learn the overlooked possibilities of RAID-1, and know why they need more advanced hardware to make effective use of RAID-5. Still, *if after reading everything carefully* you feel I have omitted anything crucial (quite likely in these early stages) or have gotten something wrong, feel free to post here to let me know. I will be sure to examine every post relating to the quality of this guide and try to make changes accordingly or at least justify why I did not make a change.
Some of you may wonder why I don't do a summary of all these RAID levels and technologies somewhere and basically just tell you how to set things up. The reasons are simple: tables and charts do not provide an understanding of the technology and it's not my job to tell you how to do things. All this guide is meant to do is inform you about different technologies available and allow you to draw your own informed conclusions as to what it best for your particular situation.
Master Index:
Post 1: Overview
Post 2: Revised Storage Technology Guide
Post 3: RAID-0
Post 4: RAID-1
Post 5: RAID-5 & -6
Post 6: RAID Level Combinations (coming soon)
Please note that this is NOT a "What To Buy" guide. Although I may make mention of some particular hard drives or controllers this post concerns the only the technologies used in hard drive systems. For advice on what controllers to get, check out the latest benchmarks available. This guide is intended to be informative only and that will not change until a controller company steps up and sends me something nice (j/k - or am I?).
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