Comparing the uses of software RAID on Windows and Linux
RAID Recovery - Comparing the uses of software RAID on Windows and Linux
The key idea of using RAID, abbreviation of Redundant Array of Inexpensible (independent) disk, is to combine small, multiple and independent disk drives into an array to enhance the overall performance, reliability and recoverability in comparison to a Single Large Inexpensive drive. Almost all RAID levels come with Redundancy feature that automatically protects data against hard disk crash except for RAID 0.
Since the inception of ATA and SATA, their price has been plummeting. Earlier, its usage was confined only among the big enterprises. Now, with affordable price, it is obviously a good idea, even for desktop computers, to set up RAID 1 which is capable of functioning properly in a disk failure. RAID 1 requires two hard disks to distribute data equally onto them so that if one disk fails to work, data can still be retrieved from the existing one. If we compare the usage of software RAID on Windows and Linux, Linux RAID is seems superior to Windows. 4 reasons are enough to clarify the idea of selecting Linux RAID
Linux supports RAID on block devices; naturally, one can set up RAID between two divisions on the same hard disk including two RAID 0 arrays. Moreover, Linux supports almost all the RAID variants. On the other hand, Windows support RAID 0 and GBOD (linear on Linux) only for non-server users and it is not suitable for intermediate RAID variants.
In Windows, installing the operating system on RAID is not possible. In case of Linux it is opposite; one is quite capable of installing operating system on RAID file system. It reveals that in case of hard disk failure, booting can be done from the remaining hard disks.
If one is using spare hard disks, Linux will automatically configure it and add to the array. But it is possibly impossible in Windows. Linux RAID can be easily configured during installation, on the other side, Window RAID is quite tough to configure during installation. After installation, one can configure it from the disk management.
