Dell XPS manual RAID Level, serial ATA RAID configured for RAID level, Using Your Computer

NOTE: RAID levels do not represent a hierarchy. A RAID level 1 configuration is not inherently better or worse than a RAID level 0 configuration.

RAID Level 0

RAID level 0 uses a storage technique known as "data striping" to provide a high data access rate. Data striping is a method of writing consecutive segments, or stripes, of data sequentially across the physical drives to create a large virtual drive. Data striping allows one of the drives to read data while the other drive is searching for and reading the next block.

serial ATA RAID configured for RAID level 0

segment 1	segment 2
segment 3	segment 4
segment 5	segment 6
hard drive	hard drive

Another advantage of a RAID level 0 configuration is that it utilizes the full capacities of the drives. If you have two 120-GB drives installed, you have 240 GB on which to store data.

NOTICE: Because RAID level 0 provides no data redundancy, if one drive fails, then the data on the other drive is also inaccessible. Therefore, ensure that you perform regular backups when you use a RAID level 0 configuration.

RAID Level 1

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.

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