RAID 0

Keep all RAID drives identical. That 5400 drive will just stunt the possible performance of the 7200. The speed of the 7200 should be adequate.

As to which RAID array depends on what you want RAID to do. Do you want better performance and less drive security, or the other way round.

RAID 0: 'Striping' this takes two drives, e.g. 2 x 40GB and makes them into 1 x 40GB, with a combined buffer. So if each had a 2MB buffer you now have a 4MB buffer. This means if one drive goes, you only have half the data on the other.

RAID 1: 'Mirroring' This is where you use the second drive to act as an identical copy of the first. No gain in performance, but if your drive goes down, you've one spare.

RAID 0,1: Four drives here. Two on RAID 0 and two mirroring them. Performance and security, but 4 drives can cost a bit.

For other RAIDs I'd check a search engine. Just type in RAID and you'll get something.
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You actually lose the entire thing. That's why I got an extra 10gig to use as a backup for my RAID at home.

Very true, that's why I'd recommend RAID 1 as a fileserver. Unless you want to do 0+1 or (better yet) 5.

<A HREF="http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/defineterm?term=raid" target="_new">Here</A> is a good explanation of RAID.

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