RAID Calculator

RAID stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks. It is a technology that combines multiple hard drives into one logical unit. For users of ZimaCube or other NAS systems, RAID is essential because it provides data redundancy (protection against drive failure) and can significantly improve read/write performance compared to a single drive.

No, RAID is not a backup. This is a common misconception on forums like Reddit. RAID protects you from hardware failure (a disk dying), but it does not protect you from accidental deletion, file corruption, or malware. You should always use a separate backup solution (like the 3-2-1 rule) in addition to your RAID setup.

It depends on your drive count and priority:

• RAID 1 is ideal for 2-bay systems (simple mirroring).
• RAID 5 is the most popular for 3+ drives, offering a great balance of capacity and safety.
• RAID 10 is preferred by creative professionals who need maximum speed and fast rebuild times.

If you are using large drives (over 12TB), RAID 6 is safer. Because rebuilding a large drive in RAID 5 can take days, there is a risk of a second drive failing during that time. RAID 6 uses dual-parity, allowing two drives to fail simultaneously without losing your data.

While you can mix brands, mixing sizes is generally not recommended in traditional RAID. The array will usually be limited by the smallest drive in the group. For example, if you put an 8TB and a 4TB drive in RAID 1, you only get 4TB of usable space. Use our RAID Calculator above to see how mixed sizes affect your total capacity.

This depends on your system's operating system and RAID type (e.g., ZFS vs. MDADM). Many modern NAS solutions allow "Online Capacity Expansion," where you can add a drive and the system redistributes the data. However, some RAID levels are more difficult to expand than others, so it’s best to plan your drive count using our calculator before your initial setup.

This is due to Redundancy Overhead. In levels like RAID 1, 5, or 6, a portion of your total storage is dedicated to "mirrors" or "parity" data. This space is "lost" to the user because it is being used to protect your files from a drive crash.

This is the difference between Decimal (TB) and Binary (TiB). Drive manufacturers label a drive as "10TB" (decimal), but computers see it as "9.09 TiB" (binary). Our calculator accounts for this conversion and file system overhead to give you a realistic estimate of the actual storage you can use.