About Raid Configurations; Raid Level 1 Configuration - Dell INSPIRON 530 DCMF Owner's Manual

About RAID Configurations

This section provides an overview of the redundant array of independent disks
(RAID) configuration you may have selected when you purchased your
computer. Your computer supports RAID level 1. A RAID level 1 configuration
is recommended for the data integrity requirements of digital photography
and audio.
The Intel RAID controller on your computer can only create a RAID volume
using two physical drives. If a third drive is present, then that drive cannot be
made part of a RAID volume using the Intel RAID configuration program,
although it can be used as a spare drive in a RAID 1 configuration. However, if four
drives are present in your computer, then each pair of drives can be made into
a RAID level 1 volume. The drives should be the same size in order to ensure
that the larger drive does not contain unallocated (and therefore unusable) space.

RAID Level 1 Configuration

RAID level 1 uses a data-redundancy storage technique known as "mirroring."
When data is written to the primary drive, it is then duplicated, or mirrored,
on the other drive. A RAID level 1 configuration sacrifices high data access
rates for its data redundancy advantages.
segment 1
segment 2
segment 3
segment 4
segment 5
segment 6
hard drive 1
serial ATA RAID
configured for
RAID level 1
segment 1 duplicated
segment 2 duplicated
segment 3 duplicated
segment 4 duplicated
segment 5 duplicated
segment 6 duplicated
Setting Up and Using Your Computer
hard drive 2
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