Trying to Understand RAID

L

lerch

New Member
I am new to this RAID thing,but am trying to understand the difference in "mirroring" verses RAID-5 which is what i think is the best option.Please correct me if i am wrong on this.is it the best option?
Is "mirroring" just another way of saying "BACK-UP" on the same drives or additional drives?
And one thing i am not clear on is how i should go about putting this all together.i have 12-HDD's and will need to put them in a case,right?Then,i will need a card> http://www.3ware.com/products/parallel_ata.asp
(That long 12-port) and that card will go into my what?...Into my Main OS computer,or into another motherboard which i must get to put into the new case i get for the RAID System?
Anybody steer me into the right direction on this,i appreciate the help.
Thanks,Lerch
 
OK,Like i said...i have read, i have read.Thank you again for the fine tutorial.
Well maybe my questions ARE answered somewhere in there,but i only learn from asking questions and then recieving an answer.Sorry to be such an ass.
So,again i ask in a different way.if i use the "Mirroring" method,then if i have 12-HDD's total,then 6 are useable and the other 6 are to Backup those 6?
And if i use the "Parity" method, then what?What is the ratio/percentage of usable drive space?Or am i totaly lost here.
Any answer on what exactly i need to achieve a Raid5 system.is all i need the controler card or what?is this answerable?Thanks for any replies.
Lerch
 
if i use the "Mirroring" method,then if i have 12-HDD's total,then 6 are useable and the other 6 are to Backup those 6?
Click to expand...
Yes, that's what would happen if you used RAID 1.
And if i use the "Parity" method, then what?What is the ratio/percentage of usable drive space?Or am i totaly lost here.
Click to expand...
For RAID 5 the size is said to be S(N-1) where S is the smallest disk size and N is the number of disks.
Any answer on what exactly i need to achieve a Raid5 system.is all i need the controler card or what?is this answerable?
Click to expand...
Basically, yes - a controller card and at least three disks. The controller cards can be a bit expensive though, and in some cases it would be cheaper to just buy another hard drive and have a RAID 1 setup.

Links:
http://www.promise.com/marketing/whitepaper/file/1_Hardware RAID 5.pdf
http://www.smartcomputing.com/Editorial/article.asp?article=articles/2004/w1510/14w02/14w02.asp&guid
 
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