Windows 7 / Getting Started

RAID Volumes

The acronym RAID refers to Redundant Array of Independent (or Inexpensive) Disks-it is a series of separate disks configured to work together as a single drive with a single drive letter. You have already seen three of the most common types of RAID arrays in Table 15-2: RAID-0 (disk striping), RAID-1 (mirroring), and RAID-5 (disk striping with parity). Other versions of RAID also exist but are generally unused.

When you use fault-tolerant volumes, a disk can fail and the operating system will continue to function. The failure can be repaired with no loss of data. Most Windows 7 computers do not have fault-tolerant volumes. An administrator should understand how to handle the errors that can plague a hard disk. Refer to previous section Table for common problems that can also plague fault-tolerant volumes.

CAUTION: Don't confuse the RAID-5 or mirrored volumes that you can create within the Windows 7 operating system with RAID-5 or mirrored drives that are configured in a hardware storage array. A disk array produces a highly performing, fault-tolerant volume that appears in Windows 7 Disk Management as a simple volume. When you create mirrored or RAID-5 volumes in Windows 7, you achieve fault tolerance but lose some performance to disk management processes, especially if a disk fails.

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In this tutorial:

  1. Windows Disk Management
  2. Managing Disks and Volumes
  3. Basic and Dynamic Disks
  4. Working with Basic Disks
  5. Converting Basic Disks to Dynamic
  6. Working with Dynamic Disks
  7. Troubleshooting Disk Problems
  8. Managing File System Fragmentation
  9. The Defrag.exe Command-Line Tool
  10. RAID Volumes
  11. Creating a RAID-0 Volume
  12. Creating a Spanned Volume
  13. Creating a RAID-5 Volume
  14. Using DiskPart to Create Striped, Mirrored, and RAID-5 Volumes
  15. Managing and Troubleshooting RAID Volumes
  16. Configuring Removable Drive Policies