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RAID 0 vs RAID 1: speed vs safety — analysisRAID 0 vs RAID 1: speed vs safety — analysis — reach
Storage · RAID

RAID 0 vs RAID 1: speed vs safety

Servnet Storage Team · Storage & Data Protection5 min read

RAID 0 and RAID 1 are opposites: RAID 0 is all speed and capacity with zero safety, RAID 1 is a safe mirror at half the capacity. Size both in the RAID calculator (0 vs 1).

RAID 0 vs RAID 1 (RAID 10 blends both)
RAID 0RAID 1RAID 10Usable capacity100%50%50%RedundancyNone1 drive1+ driveSpeedFastestFast readsFast bothMin drives224

RAID 0 — striping for speed

RAID 0 splits data across all drives with no redundancy, giving 100% usable capacity and the best read/write throughput of any level. The catch is fatal: any single drive failure loses the entire array, and the risk grows with each drive you add. There is no rebuild.

RAID 0 is only for disposable, reproducible or separately-protected data — scratch space, render caches, read caches. Never for a single source of truth.

RAID 1 — mirroring for safety

RAID 1 writes an identical copy to each drive. A two-drive mirror gives one drive of usable capacity (50% efficiency) and survives a failure; reads can be served from either copy, and rebuilds are a simple, fast copy. It's the standard for boot/OS drives and small critical datasets.

The cost is capacity: you buy two drives to use one. But for data you can't lose on a small volume, that simplicity and safety is worth it. See the RAID 1 calculator.

RAID 0 or RAID 1?
Is the data disposable?
yes (scratch)
RAID 0
must protect
RAID 1
4+ drives
RAID 10

Choosing — and beyond two drives

Pick RAID 0 only for throwaway speed; pick RAID 1 for safety on a small volume. They sit at opposite ends, which is why most real arrays use a level that blends both — RAID 10 (striped mirrors) for speed and safety together, or parity RAID for capacity-efficient redundancy.

If you have four or more drives and want RAID 1's safety plus more capacity and speed, jump to RAID 10 rather than scaling RAID 1.

Key takeaways
  • RAID 0 = 100% capacity, best speed, ZERO redundancy (one failure loses everything).
  • RAID 1 = mirror, 50% capacity, survives a failure, fast simple rebuilds.
  • RAID 0 only for disposable/reproducible data; RAID 1 for small critical volumes.
  • For speed AND safety with more drives, use RAID 10 instead.
Frequently asked

FAQs — RAID 0 vs RAID 1

RAID 0 vs RAID 1

Is RAID 0 or RAID 1 better?

Neither is universally better — they're opposites. RAID 0 maximises speed and capacity with no safety; RAID 1 maximises safety at half the capacity. Choose by whether the data is disposable (RAID 0) or must be protected (RAID 1).

Does RAID 0 have any redundancy?

None. RAID 0 stripes for speed with no parity or mirror, so any single drive failure loses the whole array and there is no rebuild. Only use it for data protected elsewhere.

Can RAID 1 improve performance?

Read performance, yes — requests can be balanced across the mirrored copies. Writes are not faster (a ×2 penalty), since every copy must be written.

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