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Intel® Matrix Storage Manager
What is parity initialization?

Parity initialization occurs when parity is calculated for every stripe on a RAID 5 volume. Parity is a mathematical method for recreating data that was lost from a single drive, which increases fault tolerance.

On a normal shut down, all parity operations are completed before the system is allowed to power down. When a power loss or system crash occurs, there may not be enough time for all parity operations to be completed. This results in a dirty shutdown because parity may be inconsistent with the data it is supposed to be protecting.

On the next reboot after a dirty shutdown, parity must be completely initialized in order to guarantee that it is valid for each stripe.

This applies to:
Intel® Matrix Storage Manager

Solution ID: CS-021506
Date Created: 20-Sep-2005
Last Modified: 16-May-2008