Raid 5 Failure

[Brandy]

I just bought a new pc and had Raid 5 installed, the computer failed to Boot, the tech tells me the two drives mirroring have crashed.

My concern is how can two drives crash at the same time?  Isn't the second or other drive supposed to take over when one fails and shouldn't I get an error message or some type of warning when the first drive fails.

I really don't know much but with 3 drives in Raid 5 I thought it would be impossible to loose all my data without some type of warning. 

Could someone give me information about this or at least a site where I can read more on the subject.

Thanks

Brandy

[mektek]

Raid 1 is mirrored drives. Raid 5 is striped drives

Read about Raid levels here http://www.computerhope.com/help/raid.htm

[drivenbywhat]

RAID 5 is not a worry free type of solution. It's better than having no backup solution but it is not the only thing to have. All it does is spread your data across the drives that you have. You need a minimum of 3 drives but more are recommended. It can only "save" you from data loss if 1 drive fails. If more than 1 drive fails, you're screwed. Also, there isn't a "warning" that it will give you. Normally, if you were running a server pc, the raid drives would be visible from the outside with a light on each. If the light with the X is on RED, it means that drive has failed. Another bad thing about RAID is that if one drive fails, the other ones are pretty much going to fail soon as well since they are all the same brand, type and year. That's why two of your drives failed. Don't be surprised if your third one failed after you get the others replaced.

Raid is only good when 1 drive fails and you notice it. As soon as one drive fails you need to replace that drive and the raid will beging to "rebuild" your data so you can keep on going.