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220-1201 Practice Question: A technician is setting up a new file server with…
A technician is setting up a new file server with four 4 TB SATA SSDs. The customer requires maximum read performance and fault tolerance for up to two drive failures. Which RAID level should the technician choose?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
RAID 6
RAID 6 stripes data and uses dual parity, allowing up to two drive failures while maintaining good read performance. This question tests knowledge of RAID levels and their fault tolerance capabilities.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
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RAID 0
Why it's wrong here
RAID 0, or striping, distributes data across multiple drives without any redundancy. While it significantly boosts read and write performance by allowing simultaneous access to different parts of a file, it offers no fault tolerance whatsoever. The failure of even a single drive in a RAID 0 array results in the complete and irreversible loss of all data across the entire array, making it unsuitable for critical file servers requiring high availability.
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RAID 1
Why it's wrong here
RAID 1, known as mirroring, duplicates data identically across two drives. This provides excellent fault tolerance against a single drive failure, as the system can continue operating using the mirrored copy. However, with four drives, a standard RAID 1 configuration would typically involve two separate mirrored pairs, meaning it could only tolerate one failure per pair, not two arbitrary failures across the entire four-drive set simultaneously, and it sacrifices 50% of total capacity.
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RAID 5
Why it's wrong here
RAID 5 utilizes block-level striping with distributed parity across all drives in the array. This configuration provides fault tolerance against a single drive failure, as the missing data can be reconstructed from the remaining data and parity information. However, RAID 5 is inherently limited to tolerating only one drive failure; if a second drive fails before the first failed drive is replaced and the array is rebuilt, all data will be lost, making it insufficient for the requirement of surviving two failures.
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RAID 6
Why this is correct
RAID 6 employs block-level striping with dual distributed parity, meaning it writes two independent parity blocks for each data stripe across the drives. This robust design allows the array to withstand the simultaneous failure of any two drives without data loss, providing a higher level of fault tolerance than RAID 5. While it incurs a greater capacity overhead and slightly reduced write performance compared to RAID 5 due to the extra parity calculations, its ability to survive two drive failures makes it the ideal choice for critical file servers.
Quick reference
RAID Level Comparison
| RAID Level | Min Disks | Fault Tolerance | Read | Write | Usable Capacity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RAID 0 | 2 | None | Excellent | Excellent | 100% |
| RAID 1 | 2 | 1 disk | Good | Moderate | 50% |
| RAID 5 | 3 | 1 disk | Good | Moderate | 67–94% |
| RAID 6 | 4 | 2 disks | Good | Lower | 50–88% |
| RAID 10 | 4 | 1 disk per mirror | Excellent | Good | 50% |
RAID is not a backup strategy — it protects against disk failure but not against accidental deletion, ransomware, or site-level events.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 220-1201 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the 220-1201 exam.