RAID by the Levels

So, the RAID answer to huge data streams is: make the disks take turns writing, or reading. This is called striping, and it is one of the most basic RAID functions. Graphically, it looks like this:

And to the system, it looks like one big drive. Striping provides fast performance,* but nothing in the way of fault protection; if an HDD has a problem, tough luck. Data storage is not redundant. This is designated RAID level 0.

*You might think that you'd approach double the performance of a single, unRAIDed disk (i.e., the file that took 10 seconds to read or write, now takes 5.2), but such is not the case. The best you get, using a hardware RAID controller, is around a 30 percent improvement. (I.e., The file now takes 7 seconds. Or maybe 8.)

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