Storage Spaces is an option in Windows to group multiple drives in order to either have more capacity in a single volume or to add a layer of protection in case of a physical drive failure. Three basic modes are supported: simple, mirror, and parity.
This parity mode is a complex redundancy option - reducing overall capacity in trade for keeping parity data that allows reconstruction of files if a single drive fails. Selecting this option requires 3 or more drives, and effectively one drive's worth of capacity is lost to maintain the parity data. This is a good option for users who want to protect their data but not lose as much capacity as mirroring requires.
This parity mode is a complex redundancy option - reducing overall capacity in trade for keeping parity data that allows reconstruction of files if a single drive fails. Selecting this option requires 3 or more drives, and effectively one drive's worth of capacity is lost to maintain the parity data. This is a good option for users who want to protect their data but not lose as much capacity as mirroring requires.
Complex redundancy option - reducing overall capacity in trade for keeping parity data that allows reconstruction of files if a single drive fails. Requires 3+ drives.
