AKiTiO NT2 LAN - Manual (Page 10)

NT2 LAN Getting Started
Page 7
6. Select the drive mode from the list. If you have installed only one hard drive, select “Single
Drive”, or otherwise, for two hard drives select “Dual Drive”. Click OK to continue.
7. If you have installed two hard drives and selected the “Dual Drive” mode, you can now
select the RAID mode. For data security, select RAID 1 (mirror copy) and to make use of
the largest possible storage capacity, select BIG (disk spanning). Click OK to continue.
RAID 1 – Disk Mirroring
Only 50% of the total capacity, depending on the drive with the smallest capacity, can be
used. RAID 1 creates an exact copy (or mirror) of a set of data on the second drive. This is
useful when reliability and backup take precedence over storage capacity. Should one hard
drive fail, it can be replaced and the data rebuilt automatically.
BIG – Disk Spanning
The capacities of both drives are combined as one large volume. Spanning is an array (not
RAID) that is written sequentially across the drives. By itself, it does not provide any
performance or redundancy benefits. It is ideal for drives with different capacities, making
use of the maximum storage capacity. However, if one drive becomes damaged, the whole
array can become corrupted.