Abstract: This invention describes a high-performance, log-structured implementation of a RAID subsystem that can be efficiently implemented in software. The methods described in this invention are extraordinarily well suited for software-based RAID 5 systems. In one embodiment, the disk storage subsystems receiving a request to write data. Thereafter, the write operation is appended to a first log to identify a storage location of data written to the disk subsystem, wherein the first log consists of a sequence of segments, the segments consist of a sequence of variable length stripes, a length of a stripe varies based on a quantity of disks addressed by a stripe. In response to adding a disk to the disk storage subsystem, increasing a length of the stripes and increasing a number of disks available for striping data. Alternatively, in response to a disk failing within the disk storage subsystem or a disk being removed from the disk storage system, narrowing a length of the stripes.