A desktop computer RAID

Haha, cheezy title.

Don't get it? My desktop computer did not get subpoenaed by the Record Industry Association of America. I am referring to redundant array of inexpensive drives (RAID). Traditionally used only on mission critical and high performance servers, RAIDs provide data protection through redundancy and higher performance through parallelism. But improved data security and higher performance are key sales points for desktop computers so now the technology is increasingly available on PC's. Dell has provided RAID options on some of their desktop PCs for close to 3 years now.

A modern desktop PC usually has RAID capabilities in its SATA chip set. When the computer boots, a BIOS tool is used to set up a RAID configuration. This is not a "real" hardware RAID but software RAID implemented in the BIOS, also known as a "fake RAID". Windows 2000/XP use BIOS routines to access data on the RAID until you install the "Application Acceleration" drivers provided by Intel or whoever the motherboard vendor is. It will then use those software routines to access the RAID devices.

Linux has had software RAIDs for a while but their software RAID system is incompatible with proprietary, BIOS based "fake RAIDs". While Linux "fake RAID" drivers exist and are improving with time, in my opinion, a Linux software RAID is a better choice if Linux is your primary OS. Linux software RAIDs are completely open, will work on any "normal" hard-drive, will co-exist with other operating systems. Tools for provisioning, backup and recovery are all in the Linux environment and they are all well tested. The only disadvantage is the incompatibility with "fake RAIDs". Hard drives cannot be "normal" and a member of a "fake RAID".

The Linux Software RAID Howto is a good resource to begin with if you want a deeper understanding of RAID on Linux.