N-RAID (Non-RAID)
N-RAID, which stands for Non-RAID, is also known as Concatenated and Spanning. Some manufacturers still refer to N-RAID as JBOD, but this is on the decline. In an N-RAID system, physical drives are put together without RAID to form one logical volume. Data is simply moved intact to the drives until they are full. For example in a 2 drive N-RAID/SPAN set, a large video file is moved onto the volume. Behind the scenes it takes up the majority of one drive. The next large file will be loaded onto the other drive in the set with smaller files being moved intact onto open space. You do not need matching drives.
Learn More About the Types of RAID
RAID 0 (Stripe)
Data is split into blocks over two or more drives at same time for high speed and large capacity.
Capacity
Data Safety
Performance
RAID 1 (Mirror)
Data is written at same time to two drives only for highest level of data safety and redundancy.
Capacity
Data Safety
Performance
RAID 10 (1+0)
Data is Striped (RAID 0) over two Mirrored sets (RAID 1) of drives for fast redundancy.
Capacity
Data Safety
Performance
RAID 5 (Stripe with Parity)
Data is Striped (RAID 0) while incorporating parity over three or more drives for the best combination of speed, capacity, and redundancy.
Capacity
Data Safety
Performance
JBOD
(Just a Bunch Of Disks/Drives)
Each disk shows up as an individual logical volume on the computer. A 4 bay unit populated with drives will have 4 logical drives show up on the computer.
Capacity
Data Safety
Performance
Span (N-RAID)
Combines capacity of two or more drives of varying size without any RAID data distribution scheme into one logical desktop volume.
Capacity
Data Safety
Performance