RAID Level-5

RAID Level-5

RAID level-5 requires a minimum of three hard disk drives.
This RAID level stripes data and parity across all drives in the array.
When an array is assigned RAID level-5, the capacity of the logical drive is reduced by one drive (for data-parity storage).

RAID level-5 is generally the most desirable choice, because it offers both data protection and increased throughput.
RAID level-5 gives you higher capacity than RAID level-1, but RAID level-1 offers better performance.

The following illustration shows data arranged in an array with three hard disk drives.
The logical drive is assigned RAID level-5.
Notice that the storage of the data parity also is striped, and it shifts from drive to drive.