Standard RAID levels
Think of standard RAID levels as different ways to organize data on multiple hard drives.
RAID 0 is like having a really long book split into two parts, and two people working together to read it quickly. They can finish the book faster because they are working together, but if one person stops, they have to start all over again. In RAID 0, data is split into blocks and stored on two or more drives, and when you want to access that data, all the drives work together to retrieve it. This makes it fast, but if one drive fails, all the data is lost.
RAID 1 is like having a copy of the book, with one person reading the first half and the other person reading the second half. They can't read it as quickly, but if one person stops, the other person can keep going. In RAID 1, data is mirrored on two or more drives, so if one drive fails, the other one can still be used to retrieve the data. This makes it safe, but it's not as fast as RAID 0.
RAID 5 is like having three friends read different pages from the book and then putting their notes together to create a summary of the book. If one friend doesn't show up, they can still create a summary. In RAID 5, data is split into blocks and distributed across three or more drives, and an extra block of data is added to each block to create a checksum. This allows the system to recover the data if one drive fails, but it's not as safe as RAID 1 because if two drives fail, the data is lost.
RAID 6 is like having four friends read different pages from the book and then putting their notes together to create a summary, but they also have a backup friend who can fill in if one of the four friends can't make it. In RAID 6, data is split into blocks and distributed across four or more drives, and two extra blocks of data are added to each block to create a more robust checksum. This allows the system to recover the data if two drives fail, making it safer than RAID 5.
Overall, different RAID levels provide different trade-offs between speed and safety, depending on the needs of the user.
RAID 0 is like having a really long book split into two parts, and two people working together to read it quickly. They can finish the book faster because they are working together, but if one person stops, they have to start all over again. In RAID 0, data is split into blocks and stored on two or more drives, and when you want to access that data, all the drives work together to retrieve it. This makes it fast, but if one drive fails, all the data is lost.
RAID 1 is like having a copy of the book, with one person reading the first half and the other person reading the second half. They can't read it as quickly, but if one person stops, the other person can keep going. In RAID 1, data is mirrored on two or more drives, so if one drive fails, the other one can still be used to retrieve the data. This makes it safe, but it's not as fast as RAID 0.
RAID 5 is like having three friends read different pages from the book and then putting their notes together to create a summary of the book. If one friend doesn't show up, they can still create a summary. In RAID 5, data is split into blocks and distributed across three or more drives, and an extra block of data is added to each block to create a checksum. This allows the system to recover the data if one drive fails, but it's not as safe as RAID 1 because if two drives fail, the data is lost.
RAID 6 is like having four friends read different pages from the book and then putting their notes together to create a summary, but they also have a backup friend who can fill in if one of the four friends can't make it. In RAID 6, data is split into blocks and distributed across four or more drives, and two extra blocks of data are added to each block to create a more robust checksum. This allows the system to recover the data if two drives fail, making it safer than RAID 5.
Overall, different RAID levels provide different trade-offs between speed and safety, depending on the needs of the user.