Old drives deserve a second life

If you build your own computers, you likely have a drawer of old five hundred gigabyte and one terabyte hard drives that are too small to be useful alone but still have life left in…

What RAID actually does

RAID stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks. It combines multiple disks so they function as a single unit, distributing files across two or more drives for faster transfer speeds and data redundancy.

RAID 0: speed without safety

RAID 0 combines two or more disks through striping, speeding up file read and write times and combining total storage space. But it offers zero data protection. If a drive fails, you lose everything.

“it's a great way to get faster speeds, but not so great for keeping your data safe”

RAID 1: mirroring for safety

RAID 1 writes the same data to every disk in the array.If one disk fails, you still have everything on the other.But RAID 1 uses fifty percent of total capacity to create this mirrored copy.

RAID 5 and 10: the complex options

RAID 5 divides data into blocks across multiple drives, requiring at least three drives. If one fails, algorithms reconstruct the missing data. RAID 10 combines RAID 0 and 1 by grouping drives into mirrored pairs.

Software RAID is easiest

You can connect two or more disks to your computer and create a RAID array using software.Apple's Disk Utility in macOS lets you set up RAID 0 and 1 arrays.Windows has Disk Management.

Hardware RAID for serious users

Hardware-based RAID uses dedicated controllers that better protect drives against failures and deliver better performance.You may need to buy a RAID controller for your motherboard, or use a RAID enclosure with a built-in RAID chip.