Alternative to RAID 10

Question

With 6 drives in RAID 10 one will get 3 drives effective storage and 3 redundant drives, so in a best case scenario up to 3 drives can fail without loosing any data. But in a worst case scenario (now correct me if I'm wrong) even two failed disks could make the whole array fail (if those drives are mirrored onto each other, like in this array).

Is there a way around this possible failing state? I am liberal regarding software RAID and non-standard RAID setups, so maybe there is some way? Or it could just be me having bad luck thinking. If so - please explain to me how things really work. :)

Answer 1

You're over-thinking this. Regardless of RAID setup, they are not infallible. They are there to increase the odds that a disk failure (or perhaps even two) won't cause the system to crash, but can never totally eliminate the fact that drives fail.

Think of it this way: "What if my RAID Controller fails?" -- You're down, regardless of how many drives or what RAID configuration you chose.

RAID exists (primarily) to help keep up-time (and perhaps help with disk access speeds), Backup is there to prevent you from losing data. The two are NOT the same thing, and you should have both(unless uptime isn't a big deal, then just make backups).