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RAID

Common Raid Configurations

In the world of media production, data is everything. Whether you’re storing high-res video footage, RAW photo files, or critical project data, it’s essential to have a reliable and efficient storage solution. RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) is a popular method to improve performance, redundancy, or both, but RAID is not a backup solution. In this post, we’ll dive into the common RAID configurations, how they work, the pros and cons, and the number of drives required for each.

 

RAID 0 (Striping)

  • Minimum Drives: 2
  • Purpose: Speed. Significant performance boost for reading and writing large files. All storage capacity of the drives is available (e.g., two 4TB drives will give 8TB total).
  • How it Works: Data is split evenly across two or more drives. This boosts read and write speeds because the system can access data from multiple disks at once.
  • Beware: If one drive fails, all data is lost. This makes RAID 0 risky for important projects.

 

RAID 1 (Mirroring)

  • Minimum Drives: 2
  • Purpose: Redundancy. Provides protection against drive failure. Simple to set up and use.
  • How it Works: Data is mirrored (copied) onto two or more drives. If one drive fails, the other contains an exact copy of the data.
  • Beware: You lose half the total capacity (e.g., two 4TB drives will only give 4TB of usable storage).

 

RAID 5 (Striping with Parity)

  • Minimum Drives: 3
  • Purpose: Balance of Speed and Redundancy. Offers redundancy without losing as much storage capacity (e.g., three 4TB drives will give about 8TB of usable space). Provides a performance boost compared to RAID 1.
  • How it Works: Data is striped across multiple drives like in RAID 0, but with the addition of parity (error-checking data) distributed among the drives. If a single drive fails, the system can rebuild the missing data using the parity information.
  • Beware: Slower write speeds due to parity calculations. Only protects against a single drive failure. If more than one drive fails at the same time, all data is lost.

 

RAID 6 (Striping with Double Parity)

  • Minimum Drives: 4
  • Purpose: Extra Redundancy by being more robust than RAID 5 while having a decent performance boost.
  • How it Works: Similar to RAID 5, but with double parity, meaning two drives can fail simultaneously without losing data.
  • Beware: More overhead on performance compared to RAID 5 due to the extra parity calculations.

 

RAID 10 (1+0 or 0+1, Mirroring + Striping)

  • Minimum Drives: 4
  • Purpose: High Performance with Redundancy. Excellent performance with redundancy. Can tolerate multiple drive failures (as long as no two mirrors fail at the same time).
  • How it Works: Combines RAID 1 and RAID 0. Data is first mirrored and then striped across multiple drives. This provides the speed of RAID 0 with the redundancy of RAID 1.
  • Beware: Only half of the total capacity is usable (like RAID 1).

 

Why RAID is Not a Backup

It’s crucial to understand that RAID, regardless of the configuration, is not a backup solution. RAID protects against hardware failure (drive crashes), but it does not protect against:

  1. Accidental deletion of files.
  2. Corruption of data.
  3. Ransomware or malware attacks.
  4. Disasters such as fire or theft.


A proper backup solution involves regularly copying your data to a completely separate location, such as an external hard drive or cloud storage service. A solid backup strategy includes offsite backup. Regardless of which RAID level you choose, remember: RAID is just one part of your data storage solution. Always have a separate, comprehensive backup plan in place to safeguard your work. Upgrading your home lab storage with RAID is a smart move, but it’s only one piece of the puzzle for complete data protection.

 

Hardware Recommendations

Storage Drives

HDDs (Hard Disk Drives): For bulk storage and long-term archiving, HDDs are still a go-to option due to their cost-efficiency per terabyte. However, when selecting drives, go for models designed for NAS or enterprise use, as they are built for reliability, sustained operation, and often have better warranties. HDDs are best for high-capacity, long-term storage. They offer good durability for archiving RAW photo files, video projects, or massive data backups. If you’re setting up RAID 1, RAID 5, or RAID 6, these HDDs will offer strong performance with redundancy and can handle being powered on 24/7. Recommended HDDs: Seagate IronWolf Pro or Western Digital Red Pro.

SSDs (Solid State Drives): For projects that need fast access times and higher I/O performance (e.g., video editing, software development environments), SSDs offer excellent speed but come at a higher cost per GB. SSDs are perfect for workloads where speed is critical, such as real-time 4K video editing or running virtual machines for software development. If you’re combining SSDs in a RAID 0 or RAID 10 setup, you’ll get massive speed benefits, but make sure to back up data externally since SSDs don’t offer the same longevity for write-heavy applications as HDDs. Recommended SSDs: Samsung 870 EVO (SATA) or WD Black SN850 (NVMe).

 

NAS Devices (Network Attached Storage)

  • Synology DS923+ 4-Bay (Good): Great for small offices, freelancers, and media professionals with moderate data storage needs. It’s easy to use, has good performance, and supports up to 9 drives with an expansion unit. Best for users who prefer a plug-and-play solution with minimal configuration.
  • Synology DS1621+ 6-Bay (Better): Offers more storage capacity (6 bays, expandable to 16), higher performance with a quad-core CPU, and ECC memory for better data integrity. It’s ideal for businesses or media professionals with heavier workloads like 4K video editing, virtualization, and larger datasets.
  • TrueNAS Core (DIYer): The ultimate in flexibility and customization. TrueNAS Core allows for highly specific builds, with the potential for much better performance depending on the hardware you choose. It is ideal for power users who are comfortable building and configuring their own NAS for advanced tasks such as enterprise-level data storage, complex RAID configurations, and custom networking setups.

 

If you’re after ease of use and reliability out of the box, Synology models are great choices. But if you value flexibility and high-end performance—and don’t mind diving into custom hardware—TrueNAS Core is your match.