raid 1 - Mirroring without parity or striping.

Data is written identically to multiple disks (a "mirrored set"). Although many implementations create sets of 2 disks, sets may contain 3 or more disks. Array provides fault tolerance from disk errors or failures and continues to operate as long as at least one drive in the mirrored set is functioning. Increased read performance occurs when using a multi-threaded operating system that supports split seeks, as well as a very small performance reduction when writing. Using RAID 1 with a separate controller for each disk is sometimes called duplexing.

兩組以上的N個磁碟相互作映像，在一些多執行緒作業系統中能有很好的讀取速度，另外寫入速度有微小的降低。除非擁有相同資料的主磁碟與鏡像同時損壞，否則最高可壞剩N個磁碟，可靠性最高。RAID 1就是映像。其原理為在主硬碟上存放資料的同時也在映像硬碟上寫一樣的資料。當主硬碟（實體）損壞時，映像硬碟則代替主硬碟的工作。因為有映像硬碟做資料備份，所以RAID 1的資料安全性在所有的RAID級別上來說是最好的。


raid 5 - Block-level striping with distributed parity.

Distributed parity requires all drives but one to be present to operate; drive failure requires replacement, but the array is not destroyed by a single drive failure. Upon drive failure, any subsequent reads can be calculated from the distributed parity such that the drive failure is masked from the end user. The array will have data loss in the event of a second drive failure and is vulnerable until the data that was on the failed drive is rebuilt onto a replacement drive. A single drive failure in the set will result in reduced performance of the entire set until the failed drive has been replaced and rebuilt.

RAID Level 5 是一種儲存性能、資料安全和儲存成本兼顧的儲存解決方案。它使用的是Disk Striping（硬碟分割）技術。RAID 5 至少需要三顆硬碟， RAID 5不對儲存的資料進行備份，而是把資料和相對應的奇偶校驗資訊儲存到組成RAID5的各個磁碟上，並且奇偶校驗資訊和相對應的資料分別儲存於不同的磁碟上。當RAID5的一個磁碟資料發生損壞後，利用剩下的資料和相對的奇偶校驗資訊去恢復被損壞的資料。 RAID 5可以理解為是RAID 0和RAID 1的折衷方案。RAID 5可以為系統提供資料安全保障，但保障程度要比鏡像低而磁碟空間利用率要比鏡像高。RAID 5具有和RAID 0相近似的資料讀取速度，只是多了一個奇偶校驗資訊，寫入資料的速度相當的慢，若使用「回寫快取」可以讓效能改善不少。

ref link en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID