Dell XPS 720 Black Owner's Manual - Page 32
RAID Level 5 Configuration, Configuring Your Hard Drives for RAID
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RAID Level 5 Configuration RAID level 5 also uses data parity. RAID level 5 stripes both data and parity information across three or more drives. It provides data striping at the byte level and also stripe error correction information (rotating parity array). This results in excellent performance and good fault tolerance. RAID level 5 is one of the most popular implementations of RAID. RAID level 5 is faster than RAID level 1, but requires more hard drives than a RAID level 0 or RAID level 1 configuration. If a drive failure occurs, subsequent read and write operations are directed to the other surviving drives. A replacement drive can then be rebuilt using the data from the surviving drives. Also, because data is duplicated on the primary and additional drives, four 120-GB RAID level 1 drives collectively have a maximum of 360-GB on which to store data. Configuring Your Hard Drives for RAID Your computer can be configured for RAID, even if you did not select a RAID configuration when the computer was purchased. For an explanation of RAID levels and their requirements, see "About Your RAID Configuration" on page 29. For information on how to install a hard drive, see "Installing a Hard Drive" on page 110. You can use one of two methods to configure RAID hard drive volumes. The first method uses the NVIDIA MediaShield ROM utility and is performed before you install the operating system onto the hard drive. The second method uses NVIDIA MediaShield and is performed after you have installed the operating system and NVIDIA RAID drivers. Both methods require that you set your computer to RAID-enabled mode before you begin. 32 Setting Up and Using Your Computer