Nested RAID levels

Ok kiddo, we're going to talk about nested RAID levels. RAID stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks, which basically means we use multiple hard drives to store and protect our important computer data.

Now, imagine we have four hard drives, we can organize them into different RAID levels.

RAID 0 is where we divide our data into smaller pieces and spread them across all four hard drives. This makes our computer super fast because it can read and write to all four drives at the same time, but if one of the drives fails, we lose all our data.

RAID 1 is where we duplicate all our data onto two hard drives. If one drive fails, we still have all our data on the other drive.

RAID 5 is where we use three or more hard drives and divide our data into chunks, then store some extra information to help us rebuild our data if one of the drives fails.

Now, let's say we want even more protection for our super important data. We can use nested RAID levels, which is where we combine two RAID levels.

For example, RAID 10 combines RAID 1 and RAID 0. We divide our data into chunks, then duplicate it onto two sets of two hard drives. This gives us both speed and redundancy, but we need at least four hard drives.

RAID 6 combines RAID 5 with extra redundancy, so we can survive even if two hard drives fail. But we need at least four hard drives for this too.

So, nested RAID levels allow us to combine different RAID levels to get even more protection for our data. And even though it sounds complicated, it just means we use our hard drives wisely to keep our data safe!