Regarding RAID 10 and 01 implementations with 6 drives, how is the data mirrored and striped across the 6 drives? How many drives can you loose and still be able to function? Which drives can you loose, for example, are three of the drives mirrored while the other three of provided stripping? I guess I am not sure how the fault tolerance works within the RAID 10 and 01 configurations.

Lots of info at http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=RAID+10+&btnG=Google+Search

HTH
Bryan

I ihave already searched Google, and have yet to find an exact answer as to how many drives can fail in a RAID 1+0 or 0+1 array.
I always search Google before I ask questions.

Whew...

Raid 1 = mirror. Drives have the same data. So you can lose 1 drive and still run.

Raid 0+1 = striped + Mirror. Heres the tricky part..... Lets put this a easy way.

Raid card Channel 1
Primary drive = 1
Secondary Drive = 2
Raid card Channel 2
Primary drive = 3
Secondary drive = 4

Now strip drive 1 and 2, 3 and 4
mirror the 2 stripes.

You could lose any single drive.
You could lose any 2 drives that do not have the same data. (IE. lose... 1 and 2, 3 and 4, 1 and 4, 3 and 2.)

with 6 drives we will just go with drive 1-6

stripe 1-3
stripe 4-6
mirror them.

now you can lose up to 3 drives as long as you dont lose the 2 drives of the same data. To many combos to list. so I will list the ones you dont want to lose at the same time. (1 and 4, 2 and 5, 3 and 6.)

Personally if you have 6 drives you want in a RAID and you are worried about redundancy I wouldnt use the above.

If the card supports a offline spare I would set up a RAID 5 over 4 drives with 2 offline spares.

Or a RAID 5 with 5 drives and 1 offline spare. (And keep another spare close if you are that worried.)

This setup would give you good speed and more storage space the a 0+1.