| Level
| Advantages
| Disadvantages
|
| RAID 0
| Fastest I/O
No overhead for parity
Simple design, easily implemented
| Not really RAID
One drive failure destroys all data
Not for mission-critical deployment
|
| RAID 1
| All drives usable for data reads
Can be implemented w/ 2 drives
| Greatest storage overhead - 100%
Highest cost/capacity ratio
|
| RAID 3
| High transfer rates
Degraded mode still fast
| Requires spindle synchronization
Can't do overlapped I/O
|
| RAID 4
| High read transfer rates
Efficient use of capacity
| Poor write rates
Parity drive can be bottleneck
|
| RAID 5
| Very high read rate
Efficient use of capacity
| Slower write rates
Slow rebuild times
|
| RAID 6
| Allows failure of multiple drives
| Very poor write performance
Proprietary solution, rare
|
| RAID 7
| Supposed to be fastest
| Proprietary, very expensive
|
| RAID 1+0
| Very high reads and writes
| Most expensive
|
