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Setting up RAID
About RAID
RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive/ Independent Disks) lets
your computer use multiple hard drives more efficiently. Your
computer supports RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10.
RAID 0 for performance
RAID 0 lets your computer see multiple hard drives as a single
drive. This type of RAID can increase file access speeds, which
is important if you work with video editing, sound editing, and
high-performance games. RAID 0 is also an affordable way to
increase your total file storage capacity.
How it increases performance
The more drives you have in your RAID 0 array, the faster the
potential drive reading performance. All hard drives have
limitations on how fast they can read and write files. If half a
file is stored on one RAID 0 drive and the other half on another
RAID 0 drive, each drive only has to read half of the file. So, the
entire file is accessed by the computer up to twice as fast (using
a two-drive RAID 0 array). In a three-drive RAID 0 array, if the
file is evenly distributed among the drives, each drive must
read only a third of the file, and so on. If the entire file happens
to be stored on only one of the drives, the file is accessed at
the same speed as if it were on a standard hard drive setup.
Dividing up files between multiple hard drives is called striping.
In the following graphic, each letter represents a unique block
of data, and each column represents a separate hard drive.
A
C
E
B
D
F
RAID 0
8513162.book Page 39 Tuesday, May 20, 2008 4:09 PM