1, 2 or 3 drives?

Mirroring Hard Drives, also referred to as RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks), is a method to ensure your server keeps running even if a hard drive fails. A second hard drive is added so if the first fails, the server still continues to run.

So what happens when a drive fails? The server continues to run with just one hard drive, and everyone can still use the server. The issue is that until the failed drive is replaced, the server is at risk of crashing. So the hard drive needs to be replaced as soon as possible. In most cases a technician will arrive within a few hours with a replacement.

We're not comfortable having this period of time, so we recommend having a third hard drive. This third one acts as a "spare" and will be used if one of the first two drives fail. So now, it's still running with two drives regardless of how long it takes for the failed one to be replaced.

We hope this diagram helps to explain this. If not, feel free to give us a call and we'll explain it in more detail.