What is a hard drive configuration?

There are several ways to configure hard drives, but hard drive configuration generally refers to setting up a RAID array or other network storage setup. These setups deal with configurations more complex than consumer-level hard drive setups.

Operating systems are designed to handle specific file systems, and configuring most consumer hard drives involves little more than attaching them and formatting them correctly. Servers, on the other hand, often use collections of hard drives to provide quick access to information and better data protection. After the hard drives have been connected, server administrators need to choose which type of RAID configuration they wish to use.