What does the term 'mirroring' refer to in RAID 1?

In the context of RAID 1, the term 'mirroring' specifically refers to the process of duplicating data across two drives. This means that when information is written to one drive, it is simultaneously written to a second drive, creating an exact copy or "mirror" of the data. This redundancy is crucial for data protection; if one of the drives fails, the system can continue to operate using the other drive without data loss. The primary goal of mirroring is to ensure high availability and reliability of data, allowing users to recover their information in the event of hardware failure.

The other options do not accurately describe the mirroring process. Data splitting across multiple drives pertains to a different RAID level, while data compression and encryption relate to different data management techniques that do not involve mirroring.