RAID 5 uses single parity and survives one drive failure, while RAID 6 uses dual parity and survives two simultaneous failures. RAID 6 costs one extra drive of capacity but is the safer choice for arrays of five or more large drives.
The whole point of parity RAID is surviving a dead drive without losing data, and the gap between RAID 5 and RAID 6 is exactly how many dead drives you can survive. RAID 5 holds a single parity calculation, so it tolerates one failed drive. RAID 6 holds two, so it tolerates two failing at once. That one-drive difference sounds small, but on a NAS full of large modern disks it is the line between a clean recovery and a lost array.
RAID 5 survives one drive failure; RAID 6 survives two simultaneous failures. RAID 6 costs you one extra drive of usable capacity in exchange for that second layer of protection. For arrays of five or more large drives, RAID 6 is the safer choice because the risk during a rebuild is real, not theoretical.
Both levels spread your data across the drives and add parity, which is calculated information that lets the array reconstruct what was on a missing disk. The difference is how much parity each keeps.
RAID 5 uses single parity distributed across all the drives. If one disk dies, the array reads every remaining disk, runs the parity maths, and rebuilds the lost data onto a replacement. During that rebuild the array has zero redundancy left, so a second failure before the rebuild finishes means the data is gone.
RAID 6 uses dual parity, two independent parity calculations spread across the drives. It can lose any two disks and still rebuild, which means even if a second drive fails partway through recovering the first, the array survives. That second parity is the entire reason RAID 6 exists.
The catch with RAID 5 is what happens during a rebuild, and it gets worse as drives get larger. To rebuild a failed disk, the array must read every single sector of every surviving drive. On a NAS with 8TB, 16TB, or 20TB disks, that is an enormous amount of reading, and the chance of hitting an unrecoverable read error somewhere on a surviving drive rises with the data read.
In RAID 5, a single unrecoverable read error during rebuild can derail the whole recovery, because there is no spare parity to compensate. In RAID 6 the second parity covers that error and the rebuild continues. That is why, on arrays with more than about six drives or disks larger than roughly 4TB, RAID 6 stops being cautious overkill and becomes the sensible default. The trade-off is honest: RAID 6 rebuilds more slowly because it computes two parities, and you give up one drive of capacity, but you buy genuine protection during the most dangerous moment an array faces. You can match drive count to the right level across the diskless NAS and storage range at Evetech.
For a small four-bay NAS with smaller drives, RAID 5 remains reasonable and gives you more usable capacity. For five or more bays, or any array built on large-capacity disks, RAID 6 is the safer call and the small capacity cost is worth the peace of mind. Remember too that RAID is not a backup; it protects against drive failure, not against deletion, ransomware, or a dead NAS, so keep a separate backup regardless of level. The drives that go into either array sit in the best-selling SSD and storage picks.
RAID 5 survives one failed drive, while RAID 6 survives two simultaneous failures. That extra tolerance is RAID 6's main advantage and the reason it suits larger arrays.
Rebuilding a failed drive forces the array to read every sector of the surviving disks, and on large drives the chance of an unrecoverable read error during that read is high. RAID 6's second parity covers such an error so the rebuild can finish.
Yes. RAID 6 uses the equivalent of two drives for parity versus one for RAID 5, so you sacrifice one extra drive of usable space in exchange for surviving a second failure.
RAID 6 rebuilds more slowly because it calculates two parities instead of one, and write performance can be slightly lower. For most NAS use the difference is acceptable given the added safety.
No. RAID protects against drive failure only, not accidental deletion, corruption, ransomware, or the loss of the NAS itself. Always keep a separate backup of important data alongside any RAID level.
The right parity level depends on how many drives you run and how large they are. Browse the diskless NAS and storage range at Evetech to build an array that survives the failures that matter, and pair it with reliable drives.
RAID 5 survives one failed drive, while RAID 6 survives two simultaneous failures. That extra tolerance is RAID 6's main advantage and the reason it suits larger arrays.
Rebuilding a failed drive forces the array to read every sector of the surviving disks, and on large drives the chance of an unrecoverable read error during that read is high. RAID 6's second parity covers such an error so the rebuild can finish.
Yes. RAID 6 uses the equivalent of two drives for parity versus one for RAID 5, so you sacrifice one extra drive of usable space in exchange for surviving a second failure.
RAID 6 rebuilds more slowly because it calculates two parities instead of one, and write performance can be slightly lower. For most NAS use the difference is acceptable given the added safety.
No. RAID protects against drive failure only, not accidental deletion, corruption, ransomware, or the loss of the NAS itself. Always keep a separate backup of important data alongside any RAID level.
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