RAID of hard disks: this way you can improve the performance of your HDD

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The choice of storage for your computer is one of the most important factors in determining its performance. Depending on the type of hard drives you choose for your PC, or how you connect them, their performance can vary substantially: Do you know what is a RAID disk and how can you help improve the performance of your computer? We tell you

The easiest way to connect a new disk to your PC would be to simply connect it to your computer's motherboard and use it as a stand-alone unit. But, did you know that you can improve the performance of your computer and the security of your data by configuring a RAID storage system on your computer?

This RAID system consists of grouping a series of hard disks so that they work together and sharing the common storage space to avoid losing your data if one of the disks fails or improves the speed of reading and writing of the disks.

Do you want to discover what is a RAID? Here we tell you all the details you need to know to create yours.

What is RAID?
A RAID (from the English Redundant Array of Independent Disks) is a set of hard disks that combine to form an array of disks that the operating system recognizes as a single logical unit in which the data is stored in a distributed and redundant way, improving So the security of the data you store in them.

One of the most common uses for RAID systems are servers, where this combination of disks is used to avoid the loss of stored data. That way, even if one of the disks fails, the information is not lost and can be replaced to continue storing. Another common use of RAID configurations is found in NAS storage systems.

How many types of RAID are there?
There are different types of RAID arrays with which to obtain different results in terms of security or increased performance. Each of these types of RAID has been developed to distribute the data differently among all the disks that make up the matrix, and thus optimize the security or speed of reading and writing the set of disks that form it.

There are more than 15 different RAID types or variations of them, so we are not going to list them all, since in some cases there are slight evolutions of other types of RAID and their use is very specific or minority, limited in many cases for use Exclusive in business servers.

These are some of the most used types of RAID:

RAID 0

The RAID 0 is one of the types of RAID most known among users since it provides a higher speed of reading and writing, managing to accelerate the overall performance of the computer. This type of RAID is especially po[CENSORED]r among gamers, providing extra performance to any team and reducing the loading time of game levels

The matrix in RAID 0 distributes the data equally among the units that form it, without including redundancy. This equitable distribution of the data means that the access speed is practically doubled, given that each disk simultaneously transmits the data in parallel, exponentially increasing its performance in relation to the number of units that make up the matrix.

Unlike most RAID configurations, RAID 0 does not provide fault tolerance, so if one of the disks that make it suffers a failure, all data will be lost without an option to recover it unless you have a copy of it. security.

To form a RAID 0 matrix, you need a minimum of two disks, which can be of different capacities, although the capacity of the smallest disk will be taken as reference when forming the matrix. Therefore, if you connect a 2 TB disk with a 500 GB disk, the result of RAID 0 will be a 1 TB unit (500 GB x 2).

RAID 1

The configuration in RAID 1 or mirror, is also very po[CENSORED]r among users. This mode allows greater tolerance to mechanical failures, giving greater reliability to domestic data storage systems.

Repair your damaged hard drive with bad sectors
This type of RAID doubles the contents of a disk in the rest of the disks that make up the matrix. In this way, fault tolerance is increased exponentially. In other words, if one of the discs is damaged, having duplicated the data, the information remains intact on the disk that still works.

When there is a duplicity of data in the different units that make up RAID 1, each disk can simultaneously transmit the information, so that the reading and writing speed of the set increases exponentially to the number of connected units.

This RAID configuration requires at least two disks to work, and its capabilities are not added as in the case of RAID 0, but it is created based on the available space of the smallest disk. This is because, since the data is duplicated exactly on each disk, the smallest disk could not accommodate the largest data, so the set is adapted to the capacity of the smallest disk. Therefore, if you are going to create a RAID 1 with a 2 TB disk together with a 500 GB disk, the result will be a RAID 1 set of 500 GB, taking as reference the capacity of the smallest.

RAID 5

Another of the most common RAID types is RAID 5. This type of storage arrays consist of a storage system distributed among all the disks that make up the set, to which parity information is added, offering an excellent tolerance to The falls. In fact, it could continue to work even when one of the disks has failed.

RAID 5 divides the data into blocks of information that it distributes equally between the different disks, and adds a parity block (something like a backup of the data contained in each block of data) to a different disk, in which includes information of the blocks you have distributed. Thus, if one of the disks that make up the matrix fails, the system remains active by joining the data of the different blocks distributed in the rest of the disks, and it recovers the missing fragments of the disk that has failed from the parity block of These data.

That is, taking into account the scheme above, if disk 2 fails, the system uses the information from blocks A1 and A2 and retrieves the data from block A3 from the parity block Ap of disk 3. When the damaged disk, the system restores the missing blocks in that unit and everything goes back to normal.

To the excellent tolerance to failures of RAID 5 is added the possibility of accelerating the speed of reading and writing, provided that the data requested are in different disks, so this increase in performance is not a constant.

Everything you need to know about hard drives
This type of RAID is very commonly used in NAS storage and in external storage systems, or backup units because it is the most reliable system for not losing data.

To create a RAID 5 you need a minimum of three disks to form a matrix, since in the first two the distributed data blocks would be created, in the third the parity block and so on.

Nested RAID arrays: RAID 0 + 1, RAID 1 + 0 and RAID 5 + 0
We have already commented that RAID systems behave as independent logical units, so it is possible to create a RAID matrix by combining different RAID arrays as disk drives. These are the so-called nested RAIDs.

Some of the best known are the matrices RAID 0 + 1, RAID 1 + 0. Now that you know the main types of RAID, you will better understand how they can be combined to create new matrices.

RAID 0 + 1

The RAID 0 + 1 system (or RAID 01) consists in the use of two RAID 0 matrices to create a RAID 1 matrix, which increases the performance, maintaining a greater tolerance to the failures since the data of one of the RAID 0 matrices are duplicated in another matrix of the same characteristics.

With this union of RAID matrices, it is possible to duplicate the performance of the disk units (through RAID 0), but maintaining fault tolerance (through RAID 1).

RAID 1 + 0

The system in RAID 1 + 0 (or RAID 10) is just the reverse of what we have seen in RAID 0 + 1. In this type of RAID, two matrices are used in RAID 1, to create a RAID 0 matrix. The objective is to maintain reliability, but by accelerating the access speeds to the data provided by RAID 0.

The main difference between RAID 01 and RAID 10 is the way in which the data is distributed in each RAID. In RAID 0 + 1, in case of failure of a RAID 0 disk, the backup support is in the second RAID 0 that has been linked by RAID 1. In contrast, in RAID 1 + 0, each matrix RAID 1 has its own independent backup support.

RAID 5 + 0

The RAID 5 system also has a nested variant, which combines the reliability of RAID 5 with the access speed of RAID 0.

The RAID 5 + 0 (or RAID 50) retains the great tolerance to failures of RAID 5, improving the speed of access to each disk through a RAID 0 matrix that keeps connected a minimum of three RAID 5 arrays.

The main difference between RAID 01 and RAID 10 is the way in which the data is distributed in each RAID. In RAID 0 + 1, in case of failure of a RAID 0 disk, the backup support is in the second RAID 0 that has been linked by RAID 1. In contrast, in RAID 1 + 0, each matrix RAID 1 has its own independent backup support.

RAID 5 + 0

The RAID 5 system also has a nested variant, which combines the reliability of RAID 5 with the access speed of RAID 0.

The RAID 5 + 0 (or RAID 50) retains the great tolerance to failures of RAID 5, improving the speed of access to each disk through a RAID 0 matrix that keeps connected a minimum of three RAID 5 arrays.

A RAID does not replace a backup
In the face of possible confusion, it is important to clarify that a RAID configuration will not protect your data from an attack by ransomware or viruses that corrupt the files, since it does not encrypt or protect access to data, but rather makes them more tolerant of mechanical failures. discs. If a virus or malware attacks a RAID system, the data it contains can also be encrypted or deleted, just as you could manually delete it.

In addition, this type of configuration does not make the recovery of the system simpler either. Therefore, it never hurts to have an additional backup from which to rescue your operating system or your data.

Can I configure a RAID on my PC?
There are two ways to create a disk array in RAID: hardware RAID and software RAID.

To create a disk array in RAID using hardware all you need is that the motherboard of your PC has a storage controller compatible with RAID. This data is usually indicated in the specifications of the motherboard. In these specifications you will also find in which connectors this feature is supported and what types of RAID are compatible with your motherboard.

If the motherboard supports the creation of a RAID, it will be sufficient to connect the disks to the appropriate SATA ports, configure the matrix from the BIOS or UEFI of the equipment and the system will recognize it as a single storage unit.

How to convert an old hard drive to an external disk
If the motherboard of your computer does not offer support for RAID, or does not support the type of RAID you want to create, it will not be a problem either. You can add an external controller via PCI that will allow you to create the disk array in RAID by connecting the drives to the card, instead of directly to the motherboard.

On the other hand, regardless of whether the motherboard of your computer has support for RAID systems or not, you can also configure a RAID matrix using software.

The operating system is responsible for this task, which will emulate the behavior of a RAID controller to distribute the data in the disks configured for this purpose, showing itself as a single storage unit.

In the case of Windows, this configuration of disks in RAID is done from the Windows Disk Administrator. In this step by step we show you how to create a software RAID from Windows.

The configuration of a RAID on Mac is done through the Disk Utility tool, while for GNU / Linux systems it will be necessary to install the mdadm package that manages the creation of the RAID.