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In the most basic RAID 5 array, does the parity drive have to be the same size as the other 2 drives?
Standard Array:
1x4TB Drive (Storage)
1x4TB Drive (Storage)
1x1TB Parity Drive
Or will the size of the usable storage of the array be limited to the max capacity of the parity drive?
Christopher Bruce
Posted 2014-11-20T16:19:48.753
Reputation: 211
1You have a fundamental misunderstanding of how RAID5 parity works. Luckily there's a question for that, which also answers your question.. :) In short, RAID5 doesn't use a single drive for parity, it spread across all drives. Your RAID5 will be based on the size of the smallest disk in the array. So if you RAID5'd your three drives listed here you'd have a RAID5 of 2TB (3x1TB - 1x1TB for parity) and the two 4TB drives would have 3TB of unused space (each). – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2014-11-20T17:05:56.557
possible duplicate of How does parity work on a RAID-5 array?
– Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2014-11-20T17:06:00.920