The answer depends on whether one is looking to configure RAID via hardware or software. Windows is capable under disk management to run RAID via software. The first step is to convert to a dynamic disk. Then the RAID levels supported, in parentheses are Striped, 2 disks (0) Mirrored, 2 disks (1) Striped with parity, which required 3 disks (5) being the three most popular. That said if RAID is being done at the hardware level, then the operating system is oblivious to the fact that it is being raided at all and simply reads what the RAID controller tells it to. In this scenario all RAID levels are suported. For a deeper discussion on raid levels the following site is excellent. http://www.acnc.com/04_01_00.html
A logical representation of one or more physical disks configured to provide redundant and/or large storage space for the system.
raid 0
The total no. of disks that are required to make RAID 1 is 3
Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID)
RAID is the use of multiple disks and data distribution techniques to get better Resilience and/or Performance RAID stands for: Redundant Array of Inexpensive / Independent Disks
RAID. There are different levels of RAID that have different features and can require even more than 2 drives to act as one drive.
RAID is redundant array of inexpensive disks. You have a few disks that are connected and this gives you some advantages. Very simply the levels that you need to know about are: JBOD - Just a bunch of disks. If the RAID is 4 x 1.0 TB you see just that - 4 disks. RAID 0 - Striping . All the disks are connected. in the above example, you see one large 4.0TB disk RAID 1 - Mirroring. Every disk has mirror version. Half the disk can die and you loose nothing. In the above example you see a 2.0 TB disk. RAID 5 - one parity disk. If one disk dies, you loose nothing. In the above example you would see a 3.0 TB disk. RAID 6 - two parity disks. If two disks die, you loose nothing. A 8 disk system would have 6 disk of usable space. Check out Wikipedia for a full explanation.
Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks.
The extra unused 8 MB is for the creation of dynamic disks in Windows XP. Although not usable in the Home Edition, dynamic disks in the Professional Edition, as well as Windows Server 2003, are used to create software RAID setups.
Essentially that just means understanding what raid one and raid 5 are. Raid one stores the data on 2 hard disks, raid 5 stores the data on 3 to 5 disks. In either of these circumstances all the hard disks must be completely identical right down to brand cache, size etc.
RAID 1, RAID 1 + 0, and RAID 5, 6.
RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) A disk subsystem that is used to increase performance or provide fault tolerance or both. RAID uses two or more ordinary hard disks and a RAID disk controller. In the past, RAID has also been implemented via software only. In the late 1980s, the term stood for "redundant array of inexpensive disks," being compared to large, expensive disks at the time. As hard disks became cheaper, the RAID Advisory Board changed "inexpensive" to "independent." More Questions? E-mail me at oliverbikers@yahoo.com