RAID Calculator - Storage Capacity & Data Redundancy Tool

Free RAID calculator for determining usable storage capacity, redundancy level, and fault tolerance across different RAID configurations (0, 1, 5, 6, 10).

Calculate Your RAID Calculator - Storage Capacity & Data Redundancy Tool

Understanding RAID Storage

RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) is a data storage virtualization technology that combines multiple physical disk drives into one or more logical units for the purposes of data redundancy, performance improvement, or both.

Common RAID Levels

JBOD (Just a Bunch Of Disks)

Not technically RAID, but often included in RAID controllers. JBOD simply presents each disk as a separate volume with no redundancy or performance benefits.

RAID 0 (Striping)

Data is split across all drives, improving performance but offering no redundancy. If any drive fails, all data is lost. Total capacity equals the sum of all drives.

RAID 1 (Mirroring)

Data is duplicated across drives. Provides excellent redundancy (can survive multiple drive failures) but at the cost of capacity. Usable space equals the size of a single drive.

RAID 5 (Striping with Parity)

Distributes data and parity information across all drives. Can survive one drive failure. Usable capacity is (n-1) drives, where n is the total number of drives.

RAID 6 (Striping with Double Parity)

Similar to RAID 5 but with dual parity, allowing the array to survive two simultaneous drive failures. Usable capacity is (n-2) drives.

RAID 10 (1+0, Mirroring + Striping)

A combination of RAID 1 and RAID 0. Data is striped across mirrored pairs. Provides excellent performance and redundancy but uses 50% of capacity for redundancy.

Choosing the Right RAID Level

The best RAID level depends on your specific needs:

Need maximum performance: RAID 0 (but no redundancy) or RAID 10
Need maximum redundancy: RAID 1 or RAID 10
Balance of performance, redundancy, and capacity: RAID 5 or RAID 6
Critical data with performance needs: RAID 10

RAID Is Not a Backup

It's important to note that RAID is not a substitute for proper backup procedures. RAID protects against hardware failure, but not against data corruption, accidental deletion, ransomware, or other data loss scenarios. Always maintain proper backups of important data.

Frequently Asked Questions

RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) is a data storage technology that combines multiple disk drives into a single logical unit for data redundancy, performance improvement, or both. Different RAID levels offer various combinations of reliability, capacity, and performance.

RAID 0 (striping) splits data across multiple drives for improved performance but offers no redundancy - if one drive fails, all data is lost. RAID 1 (mirroring) duplicates data across drives, providing complete redundancy but using only 50% of the total drive capacity for data storage.

With RAID 5, you lose the equivalent of one drive's capacity for parity information. The usable space is equal to (n-1) × drive size, where n is the number of drives. For example, with 5 drives of 2TB each, you'd have 8TB of usable space (4 × 2TB).

RAID 0: None (any drive failure causes complete data loss). RAID 1: Can survive failures of all but one drive. RAID 5: Can survive one drive failure. RAID 6: Can survive two simultaneous drive failures. RAID 10: Can survive one drive failure in each mirrored pair.

No, RAID is not a substitute for proper backups. RAID protects against hardware failure but not against data corruption, accidental deletion, malware, or other data loss scenarios. Always maintain separate backups of important data.

The best RAID level depends on your specific needs: For maximum performance with no redundancy: RAID 0. For maximum redundancy with moderate performance: RAID 1. For a good balance of performance, capacity, and redundancy: RAID 5 or 6. For both high performance and high redundancy: RAID 10.

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