ASUS GUI RAID Manager: RAID Levels
C-6
RAID 5
Block 1
Block 2
Block 3
Block 4
Block 5
Block 6
Block 7
Block 8
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Logical Drive
Physical Disks
Block 1
Block 3
Block 5
Block 7
Block 2
Block 4
Block 6
Block 8
Striping
Parity (1,2)
Parity (3,4)
Parity (5,6)
Parity (7,8)
Dedicated
Parity
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RAID 5
RAID 5 implements multiple-block striping with distributed
parity. This RAID level offers the same redundancy available in
RAID 3; though the parity information this time is distributed
across all disks in the array. Data and relative parity are never
stored on the same disk. In the event a disk fails, original data
can be reconstructed using the available parity information.
For small I/Os, as few as one disk may be activated for improved
access speed.
RAID 5 offers both increased data transfer rates when data is
being accessed in large chunks or sequentially and reduced total
effective data access time for multiple concurrent I/O’s that do
not span multiple drives.