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Write Through – Data written to an array is directly written onto the disk, meaning
lower write performance for higher data availability. Without cache acting as a
buffer, write performance will be noticeably slower but data loss due to power
outages or other failures is significantly minimized.
Block Size (default: 64K)
[16K, 32K, 64K, 128K, 256K, 512K, 1024K are the supported block sizes]
This option allows you to specify the block size (also known as “stripe size”) for
specific array types (RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, and 10). Adjusting the block size allows you to
tailor the array performance towards specific application. Consider the sizes of disk
I/O data you are dealing with; as a general rule larger disk I/O may benefit from
smaller block sizes, and smaller disk I/O may benefit from larger block sizes. A
block size of 64 KB is recommended since it gives balanced performance for most
applications.
Capacity (Default: Maximum)
The total amount of space you want the RAID array to take up. When creating RAID
levels, disk capacities are limited by the smallest disk.
Example Capacity calculation:
A RAID 5 organizes data in the manner shown below. All parity data will become
unusable for the user and not included in the total disk capacity.
Disk 1
Disk 2
Disk 3
Disk 4
Data 1
Data 2
Data 3
Parity
Data 4
Data 5
Parity
Data 6
Data 7
Parity
Data 8
Data 9
Parity
Data 10
Data 11
Data 12
Therefore, RAID 5 capacity will be [SMALLEST DISK CAPACITY] * (number of disks –
1).
Sector Size (Default: 512B)
This option is irrelevant for Windows XP 64 and later.
Current OS already support
larger volumes, and introduce a partitioning method known as GPT (GUID partition
table). This option, also known as VSS (Variable Sector Size) allows you to specify the
sector size of the array, for use with older Windows Operating Systems.
