What is RAID?
RAID stands for "Redundant Array of Independent Disks".
The goals of RAID are essentially:
To protect data from
loss during a disk failure and/or to enhance the speed of data
storage and retrieval by reading and writing to multiple disks,
instead of to a single disk.
For example, RAID technology allows you to create a
mirrored volume:
Instead of having your data written to a
single partition, and risking its loss or downtime when that
disk fails, a mirrored volume is used. A mirrored volume is actually
two identical partitions on two different disks (the data is written
to both disks simultaneously).
When one disk fails, the other can take over, minimizing downtime.
Its redundant, because the data on both partitions are identical.
Its an array, because it's two partitions that look and act like
one to the Operating System.
And it uses independent disks…when one fail, the other can
take over.
