RAID Storage Calculator

RAID Storage Calculator

Visualize space efficiency and data redundancy for different RAID levels.

RAID Levels Explained

RAID 0 (Striping)

• Pros: Fastest performance. 100% capacity utilization.
• Cons: Zero redundancy. If one drive fails, all data is lost.
• Best for: Temporary scratch disks, high-speed rendering.

RAID 1 (Mirroring)

• Pros: High redundancy. If a drive fails, the copy takes over immediately.
• Cons: 50% capacity penalty. You pay for 2 drives but get space of 1.
• Best for: Boot drives, critical databases.

RAID 5 (Striping with Parity)

• Pros: Good balance. Fast reads. Can survive 1 drive failure.
• Cons: Slower writes due to parity calculation. Requires minimum 3 drives.
• Capacity: (N-1) * Size. You lose 1 drive worth of space.

RAID 6 (Double Parity)

• Pros: Extremely safe. Can survive 2 simultaneous drive failures.
• Cons: Slower writes. Requires minimum 4 drives.
• Capacity: (N-2) * Size.

RAID 10 (Nest of Mirrors + Stripes)

• Pros: Best performance and redundancy. Fast reads/writes.
• Cons: Expensive. 50% capacity penalty.
• Best for: High-performance database servers.