RAID Calculator

Calculate storage capacity, redundancy, and performance metrics for various RAID configurations.

Calculate Your RAID Calculator

RAID Level

Number of Drives

Drive Size (TB)

Understanding RAID Storage Configurations

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

Common RAID Levels

RAID 0 (Striping)

RAID 0 distributes data across multiple disks in a way that gives improved performance by allowing reads and writes to be performed simultaneously on multiple drives. It provides no redundancy, so a single drive failure will result in complete data loss.

RAID 1 (Mirroring)

RAID 1 creates an exact copy (mirror) of data on two or more disks. This provides excellent read performance and good data reliability but at the cost of doubling required storage space. RAID 1 can survive failures of one disk in each mirror set.

RAID 5 (Distributed Parity)

RAID 5 uses disk striping with parity distributed across all drives. It requires at least three drives and provides good performance and good fault tolerance. RAID 5 can continue to operate with one failed drive, but performance will be degraded.

RAID 6 (Dual Parity)

RAID 6 extends RAID 5 by adding a second parity block, allowing the array to function even with two failed drives. This provides excellent fault tolerance but at the cost of more storage overhead and slightly lower write performance than RAID 5.

RAID 10 (Stripe of Mirrors)

RAID 10 combines the benefits of RAID 0 and RAID 1 by striping data across mirrored pairs. It provides excellent performance and good fault tolerance, but with 50% of total capacity available for data storage. RAID 10 can survive multiple drive failures as long as no mirror pair loses both drives.

Choosing the Right RAID Level

When selecting a RAID level, consider:

Data importance: How critical is your data? Can you afford any downtime or data loss?
Performance needs: Do you need fast read speeds, write speeds, or both?
Storage efficiency: How much of your raw storage capacity can you allocate to redundancy?
Budget: More drives mean higher costs for hardware, power, and cooling.

Remember that RAID is not a backup solution. While it provides protection against hardware failures, it doesn't protect against accidental deletion, corruption, malware, or other data loss scenarios. Always maintain separate backups of your important data.

Related Calculators

3D Printing Cost Calculator

Calculate the cost of 3D printing materials, time, and electricity.

Amdahl's Law Calculator

Calculate the theoretical speedup in latency of a task using parallel computing.

Battery Capacity Calculator

Calculate battery capacity in mAh or Wh based on current and discharge time.

Battery Life Calculator

Estimate how long a battery will last based on capacity and power consumption.

Frequently Asked Questions

RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) is a technology that combines multiple physical disk drives into one or more logical units for data redundancy, performance improvement, or both. RAID is used to protect data from drive failures, improve system performance, and optimize storage utilization.

Different RAID levels offer various combinations of performance, reliability, and capacity. RAID 0 (striping) offers improved performance but no redundancy. RAID 1 (mirroring) provides complete data redundancy but uses 50% of capacity. RAID 5 balances performance and redundancy using distributed parity. RAID 6 offers better protection with dual parity but slightly reduced write performance. RAID 10 combines striping and mirroring for both speed and redundancy.

The usable capacity depends on the RAID level. For RAID 0, it's the sum of all drives. For RAID 1, it's the size of a single drive. For RAID 5, it's (n-1) × drive size, where n is the number of drives. For RAID 6, it's (n-2) × drive size. For RAID 10, it's (n/2) × drive size.

The consequences depend on the RAID level. In RAID 0, a single disk failure causes complete data loss. In RAID levels with redundancy (1, 5, 6, 10), the array can continue to function in a degraded state. RAID 5 can survive one disk failure, RAID 6 can survive two simultaneous failures, and RAID 10 can survive multiple failures as long as they're not both drives in the same mirrored pair.

RAID can significantly impact performance depending on the level used. RAID 0 increases read/write performance by distributing data across multiple drives. RAID 1 improves read performance but has the same write performance as a single drive. RAID 5 offers good read performance but slower writes due to parity calculations. RAID 6 has slightly slower write performance than RAID 5. RAID 10 generally offers the best overall performance for mixed workloads.

No, RAID is not a backup solution. RAID protects against disk hardware failures but doesn't protect against file deletion, corruption, malware, or many other data loss scenarios. A comprehensive data protection strategy should include both RAID for high availability and separate backup systems for data recovery.

Share This Calculator

Found this calculator helpful? Share it with your friends and colleagues!