1. What does RAID stand for?
Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks 2. When would we use RAID?

RAID allows you to survive a drive loss without data loss and in many cases without any downtime.
RAID is also useful if you are having disk IO issues, where applications are waiting on the disk to perform tasks. Going with RAID will provide you additional throughput by allowing you to read and write data from multiple drives instead of a single drive. 3. Define the following types of RAID:
RAID 0: Striped Set -- Setup splits data evenly across two or more disks. It is important to note that RAID 0 was not one of the original RAID levels, and is not redundant. If one drive goes down your server will need to be restored from backup.

RAID 1: Mirrored Set -- Setup creates an exact copy (or mirror) of data on two or more disks. A typical setup just has two drives that are setup to mirror data. If one drive goes down your server will still be functional until a scheduled drive replacement can be installed.

RAID 5: Striped Set with Parity -- Setup uses block-level striping with parity data distributed across all disks in the RAID Array. This means you can have one drive fail and your server will remain functional until a scheduled drive replacement can be installed. RAID 5 also increases read/write speeds while using the available disk space efficiently.
RAID 6: Second parity stripe -- The purpose of doing all of the extra math to support this dual parity is that the second parity stripe operates as a “redundancy” or high availability calculation, ensuring that even if the parity data on the bad disk is lost, the second parity stripe will be there to ensure the integrity of the RAID set. 4. Why is RAID 0 of any use if it offers no redundancy?
IT can be used to improve performance through concurrent access and/or create large logical disks out of multiple physical disks. 5. Why do you think that RAID 1 can be the most expensive? Why would people utilize it if it’s so costly?
It creates an exact copy (or mirror) of data on two or more disks. If one drive goes down your server will still be functional until a scheduled drive replacement can be installed.

6. If you, as a home computer user, were to purchase a form of RAID, which would you choose and why?
I would choose RAID 1. RAID 1 would create an exact copy of my data on two or more drives, and in case one of my drives goes down, I know I will still be able to use my system, because RAID 1 created and exact copy. 7. What is the difference between software RAID and hardware RAID?
The hardware-based system manages the RAID subsystem independently from the host and presents to the host only a single disk per RAID array.
Software RAID offers the cheapest possible solution, as expensive disk controller cards or hot-swap chassis are not required. With today’s fast CPUs, Software RAID performance can excel against Hardware RAID.

(February 24, 2010). What is the difference between hardware RAID and software raid?. In HDD Tool. Retrieved April 19,2013, from http://www.hdd-tool.com/raid/difference-between-hardware-raid-and-software-raid.htm.
(February 01, 2010). Redundant Array of Independent (or Inexpensive) Disks. In The five most Common RAID Levels. Retrieved April 19,2013, from http://www.infocellar.com/hardware/raid-copy.htm.
Samara Lynn. (October 6, 2010). RAID Levels Explained. In PC Mag. Retrieved April 19,2013, from http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2370235,00.asp.