Dongyrn's Computer Page

Short for Redundant Array of Independent (or Inexpensive) Disks, a category of disk drives that employ two or more drives in combination for fault tolerance and performance. RAID disk drives are used frequently on servers but aren't generally necessary for personal computers.

• Level 0 -- Striped Disk Array without Fault Tolerance: Provides data striping (spreading out blocks of each file across multiple disk drives) but no redundancy. This improves performance but does not deliver fault tolerance. If one drive fails then all data in the array is lost.
• Level 1 -- Mirroring and Duplexing: Provides disk mirroring. Level 1 provides twice the read transaction rate of single disks and the same write transaction rate as single disks.
• Level 2 -- Error-Correcting Coding: Not a typical implementation and rarely used, Level 2 stripes data at the bit level rather than the block level.
• Level 3 -- Bit-Interleaved Parity: Provides byte-level striping with a dedicated parity disk. Level 3, which cannot service simultaneous multiple requests, also is rarely used.
• Level 4 -- Dedicated Parity Drive: A commonly used implementation of RAID, Level 4 provides block-level striping (like Level 0) with a parity disk. If a data disk fails, the parity data is used to create a replacement disk. A disadvantage to Level 4 is that the parity disk can create write bottlenecks.
• Level 5 -- Block Interleaved Distributed Parity: Provides data striping at the byte level and also stripe error correction information. This results in excellent performance and good fault tolerance. Level 5 is one of the most popular implementations of RAID.
• Level 6 -- Independent Data Disks with Double Parity: Provides block-level striping with parity data distributed across all disks.
• Level 0+1 -- A Mirror of Stripes: Not one of the original RAID levels, two RAID 0 stripes are created, and a RAID 1 mirror is created over them. Used for both replicating and sharing data among disks.
• Level 10 -- A Stripe of Mirrors: Not one of the original RAID levels, multiple RAID 1 mirrors are created, and a RAID 0 stripe is created over these.

Just did a quick update to my home network diagram, simplified it a bit, taking out peripherals like the printers (which wouldn't transfer from the Visio to image format, annoying) though not all these systems are online just yet. My corner of the basement is still a mess, but at least the network is up now...

As you can see from the link in the section below, we have called our network "Muppetopia" and named each computer after muppets. Noticed I hadn't updated this list in awhile, so I did some editing. So far we have:

• CrazyHarry (my new gaming rig); WinXP Pro, AMD Athlon 64 3500+, 1GB Corsair XMS DDR PC3200 Dual-Channel RAM, 2x 36.7GB Western Digital Raptor SATA 10000rpm RAID0, 120GB Western Digital 7200rpm, PNY nVIDIA GeForce 6800GT 256MB
• FozzieBear (my workstation); WinXP Pro, P4 1.6GHz, 1024MB RAM, 45GB + 120GB HD, ATI Radeon 9000 Pro 128MB
• Beaker (Donna's computer); WinXP Home, P4 HT 3.0GHz, 512MB RAM, 80GB HD, Integrated Intel Extreme Graphics 2
• Scooter (internal file/print server); Win2000 Server, PIII Xeon 733MHz, 384MB RAM, 9.1GB Ultra3 SCSI HD (OS), 160GB RAID1 HD (Files)
• Zoe (my personal laptop); ThinkPad 600E, RedHat Linux 8, PII 366 MHz, 128MB RAM, 6.4GB HD
• Zoot (internal app/game server); WinXP Pro, P4 1.7GHz, 512MB RAM, 20GB HD
• Gonzo (Katie's computer); WinXP Pro, PIII 866MHz, 384MB RAM, 15GB HD, ATI Rage Fury 16MB
• Rizzo (Carrie's computer); WinXP Pro, PIII 866MHz, 384MB RAM, 15GB HD, ATI Rage Fury 16MB

And I have plans to add other boxes (as in I already have the unallocated hardware on hand) but I'm not going to list them, as that keeps changing (my plans for them, that is).

If we ever have the money to buy Donna a new laptop, I think we might call it Pepe (though that's what I call my old iPaq). Or Robin.

I like to browse the forums here under the username "dongyrn". (Actually you will find me under that name on most of the forums I participate in.) There's a tremendous amount of info, on ISP's and areas and such... Here are my favorite forum areas, listed in the footer are some links on me.

• OS and Software >> All things UNIX
• Equipment Support >> Computer Hardware Discussion / Reviews
• US Cable Support >> Adelphia Powerlink
• Equipment Support >> Home/Office setup photos
• City Chat >> Washington DC/Baltimore MD
• Computing Clubs >> Team Discovery

I joined the DSLR Team Discovery, helping in the fight against cancer and juvenile diseases. Basically volunteering my spare CPU cycles to help process molecular research in an effort to create new drugs that fight these diseases.