RAID Capacity & Redundancy Calculator
Determine available storage space, disk parity overhead, fault tolerance metrics, and speed capabilities for various RAID arrays.
RAID Array Output
Usable Space:6 TB
Overhead/Redundancy:2 TB
Fault Tolerance:1 disk
Read Speed Gain:3x (Read parity stripe)
Write Speed Gain:Write Penalty (Requires read-modify-write)
Common Presets
RAID Levels Reference
| RAID Level | Min Disks | Usable Capacity | Tolerance |
|---|---|---|---|
| RAID 0 | 2 | N x C | 0 disks |
| RAID 1 | 2 | C | N - 1 disks |
| RAID 5 | 3 | (N - 1) x C | 1 disk |
| RAID 6 | 4 | (N - 2) x C | 2 disks |
| RAID 10 | 4 (Even) | (N / 2) x C | 1 to N/2 disks |
Understanding RAID Configurations
**RAID** (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) is a data storage virtualization technology that combines multiple physical hard drives into a single logical unit for data redundancy, performance improvement, or both.
- **Striping (RAID 0)** slices data across disks for massive speed boosts, but if one drive fails, the entire array is lost.
- **Mirroring (RAID 1)** duplicates data across disks. It has very high reliability but higher capacity overhead.
- **Parity arrays (RAID 5 & 6)** calculate parity mathematical blocks to rebuild lost data. If a drive fails, data is rebuilt on the fly. RAID 6 handles up to 2 simultaneous drive failures.
- **RAID 10 (1+0)** combines mirroring and striping to gain performance benefits with great protection metrics.