Raid 10

Hello Hello everyone! Hope you all doing fine!

I'm interested in RAID 10, not raid 0 or 1, raid 10. And after researching the beloved internet I have some questions. But first what do I want to do. I want to set up a raid 10 configuration that will be bootable to host windows and programs etc. Questions:

1. Bootable=Hardware raid?

2. Chiset raid=Hardware raid?

3. Chipsets nowadays can do raid 10 but is there any reason to avoid that and go with a raid card?

4. Anything else you think I'm missing.

Thank you all for your feedback!

(1+2) RAID interfaces on todays motherboards are close enough to full hardware RAID, so that they will be able to boot. All four drives need to be on the same controller as well of course, and when installing the operating system onto that RAID array there has to be drivers loaded for the interface right away.

3) Depends on what you're really going to do with the system, but in general I'd say that onboard RAID 10 is good enough for home/small workplace servers.

4) Just remember that in case the motherboard dies, getting the /system/ back up at all might require putting the drives onto a very similar motherboard. A shared potential downside of any hardware-ish RAID put to booting duty.

5) Consider if RAID is really what you want/need, especially for booting the system up. Also don't forget that RAID by itself does not make backups any less necessary.

the really important stuff is always backed up so we are good there. (4) is covered in 5+ a format so that's ok I guess..Great reply! Thanks so much! and one last question..In such a raid configuration if one the 4 disks dies we replace it with an identical one and it's all good?Does the raid take care of the new disk automatically?

Yeah if one drive fails and is replaced, the RAID will populate the new drive with data in the background. Depending on factors like the amount of data involved and the operating demand on the system during that time, it may take quite a while for that operation to complete. It is preferable to if possible have the RAID do as little other work as possible during that process, to have it complete faster.

Great. thanks mkk