To configure software RAID, a disk must be configured as a dynamic disk. A physical disk that provides features that basic disks do not, such as support for volumes that span multiple disks. Dynamic disks use a hidden database to track information about dynamic volumes on the disk and other dynamic disks in the computer. You convert basic disks to dynamic by using the Disk Management snap-in or the DiskPart command-line tool. When you convert a basic disk to dynamic, all existing basic volumes become dynamic volumes. Although software RAID has lower performance than hardware RAID, software RAID is inexpensive and easy to configure because it has no special hardware requirements other than multiple disks. If cost is more important than performance, software RAID is appropriate. If you plan to use software RAID for write-heavy workloads, use RAID-1 instead of RAID-5. RAID 1 - Disk mirroring. Data is mirrored on two or more disks. Provides fault tolerance, but at a higher cost (space required is double the amount of data). Read performance is increased as well.