macOS 13.4 Brings Bug Fix for Some SoftRAID Users

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Includes a fix for a bug some SoftRAID users were encountering when accessing RAID 5 volumes

Apple has changed the CPU used in Mac computers many times in the past 30 years, first from Motorola to Power PC, then from Power PC to Intel, and most recently from Intel to Apple silicon. Each time, macOS has done an incredible job of hiding the fact that macOS software, your applications, and all of your files are running on a completely different type of processor. With each of these changes, not only are the instructions used by the CPUs totally different, but the mechanism used to access main memory has changed as well.

Sometimes, the change in CPU type also introduces bugs. This was the case with the transition to Macs with Apple silicon. This transition introduced a bug which very occasionally causes a kernel panic when reading or writing files to SoftRAID RAID 5 volumes on Macs with Apple silicon. Reading or writing the same file to the same volume on an Intel Mac never fails.

This bug happens so infrequently that it took our testers more than a year to figure out a way of reproducing it. Most SoftRAID users on Macs with Apple silicon never see this problem.

We determined that this bug was in the code which transfers data to and from disks when accessing files on SoftRAID volumes. We then notified Apple engineers of the bug and helped them investigate it. After many, many months of working with Apple, there is finally a fix which has been introduced with the release of macOS 13.4. Now, Macs with Apple silicon are as reliable as Intel Macs when accessing SoftRAID RAID 5 volumes.

See What’s New In SoftRAID 7.5

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New easy install and SoftRAID Upgrade + Support Plan

Upgrading to SoftRAID 7.5 requires an active Upgrade + Support plan.
Click here to check your license status.

SoftRAID Updates Bring Easier Licensing Management

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With the release of SoftRAID 6.3 for Mac and the upcoming release of SoftRAID 4 for Windows, users are getting more tools to manage their SoftRAID licenses, making it easier to deploy SoftRAID to multiple users and across various locations.

As customers’ workflows continue to evolve, more and more users need to access RAID volumes from single locations and RAID enclosures are being shipped and shared to multiple destinations. With these new challenges, we have streamlined the process and make it even easier to use SoftRAID.

License management
The latest versions of SoftRAID make it even easier to manage your license. SoftRAID is still licensed per computer, meaning you need to have a valid serial number activated on your computer to access all SoftRAID features (i.e. creation, deletion, monitoring, etc.). If you have multiple startup volumes on one computer a single license is valid for that system.

If you need SoftRAID on multiple computers, you can add additional seats to your license at a discounted price at any time. New seats are added to your current SoftRAID serial number, making it easy to keep track of your license and manage the software. Additional seats can be purchased on the OWC Software store (https://software.owcdigital.com/license)

Remember: With SoftRAID you can always access your Data
While SoftRAID does use activation technology to control some of its powerful features, like RAID creation, deletion, and drive health monitoring, you can ALWAYS access your data with SoftRAID installed. Running full SoftRAID, a trial version, or even an expired version—you can always read and write to a SoftRAID volume. Your data is always accessible.

Activating and and deactivating your licenses
The process of activating and deactivating your license is extremely simple. While connected to the internet, simply go to the SoftRAID menu on the Mac or the Help menu on Windows and select the “Activate” option. This will open a new window to activate the software.

Deactivation is just as easy—once the software is activated, the menu option will change to “Deactivate License”. License management made easier.

Not connected to the internet? SoftRAID also provides options for “offline” activation using another computer or smartphone. Those options are available through the same menus if an internet connection is not detected.

Checking license status
We’ve also created tools to help check the status of your licenses—our new License Management page allows you to check the status of your SoftRAID serial numbers anytime.

Visit https://software.owcdigital.com/license/ and enter your SoftRAID serial number to view all the information associated with the license. This will work for both licenses purchased on the OWC Software store and licenses purchased with OWC enclosures and from third parties.

Here to help
If you have additional questions about OWC Software Licenses, please visit the License Management page on the OWC Software Store.

If you aren’t sure what kind of license you have or how many seats are available, please reach out to our support team anytime and they can assist with any license questions.

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SoftRAID 6.2.1 – Better Than Ever

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With any software product which has been shipping for a long time, it is important every so often to stop working on new features and instead spend time fixing difficult bugs and performing extensive testing. SoftRAID has been shipping since 2003 and during the past 2 decades, we have periodically switched gears to focus on fixing these difficult bugs. SoftRAID 6.2.1 is the result of one of these efforts. It has been four months of research, testing, and coding to fix these problems.

The work on SoftRAID 6.2.1 started last summer and involved many months of testing, both at our main development location in California and with our hardware team in Taipei. Our testers were focused on duplicating the difficult bugs, some of which only a few of our users had reported. We also had help from Apple engineers understanding some of the undocumented aspects of macOS.

Bugs fixed in this version
Here is a detailed list of what we fixed in this release:

Prevents Disk Utility from hanging macOS when erasing a SoftRAID disk

Since around macOS 10.11, a user could get Apple’s Disk Utility program to hang by selecting a SoftRAID formatted disk and erasing it. They could then force quit Disk Utility, but the Mac was left in an unstable state which did not get fixed until the Mac was rebooted. If the disk remained attached, any application which subsequently tried to access the disk would hang (e.g., Disk Utility or SoftRAID). The Mac would also hang when the user attempted a shutdown or restart, requiring a forced restart by holding down the power button.

After trying many different techniques, we finally figured out how to get macOS not to enter this state. Users must still unmount SoftRAID volumes in the Finder before erasing a disk using Disk Utility as Apple’s program does not understand the connection between SoftRAID volumes and disks.

Prevents a kernel panic when a SoftRAID disk is connected via a USB-A port on an M1 Macs

Ever since the M1 Macs shipped we have known about a kernel panic that occurred when a SoftRAID volume on a USB disk or enclosure is attached to the USB-A port on these new Macs. After lots of research and testing, we figured out how to change the SoftRAID driver so that this kernel panic no longer occurs. It was a simple change but so hard to find.

Prevents a kernel panic when a SoftRAID Time Machine volume is disconnected:

If a user disconnected a SoftRAID volume which is used as a destination for Time Machine backups, before shutting down the Mac, a kernel panic would occur. This was another one that was hard to figure out, but we now have a fix in the SoftRAID driver which works 100% of the time.

Fixes an occasional kernel panic with heavy i/o:

While trying to track down another bug, we found that the Mac would kernel panic after 4 – 6 hours of sustained, heavy i/o. This only happened on Accelsior 4M2 and 8M2 cards which were installed inside a 2019 Mac Pro and not if the Accelsior cards were in a Helios or ThunderBay Flex 8. During our tests, the SoftRAID volume could perform 200 – 400 million reads and writes before the kernel panic occurred. We figured out that this problem happened only when 2 reads or writes happened really close together in a certain specific order. SoftRAID version 6.2.1 contains code to keep this condition from occurring and therefore prevents these kernel panics. We can now run this test for 3 days without encountering this problem.

Reenables validating SoftRAID nonRAID, RAID 0, 1 and 1+0 volumes:

Our users reported that they were no longer able to validate nonRAID, RAID 0, 1 a 1+0 volumes. This bug was inadvertently introduced in the move to SoftRAID version 6.

Fixes a bug that caused the SoftRAID Monitor to display the “Volume Locked” dialog:

After macOS 10.12 started shipping, users started encountering volumes that became corrupted while in use. We spent months investigating this issue and finally determined that it was caused by a disk ID in the OS being reassigned to a different physical disk while in use. After this, all reads and writes which were supposed to go to the first disk would go to the second disk, and all reads and writes to the second would go to the first. With a RAID volume, this very quickly results in a corrupted volume.

As you can imagine, we spent months trying to duplicate and gathering information from users. We also scoured the SoftRAID driver source code looking for what could be going wrong. Then we discovered a user who had it occur with AppleRAID and another who had it occur with a Disk Utility nonRAID volume. Mark, one of our customer support engineers, discovered that if a user kept disks from going to sleep, this problem no longer occurred.

We then figured out how to detect this condition as it was occurring by occasionally reading from the physical disk and making sure the disk’s unique ID agreed with the value read when the disk was first connected. If these two values are not the same, the SoftRAID driver locks all volumes on the disk and the SoftRAID Monitor displays a warning dialog.

Unfortunately, this driver code was mistakenly marking some volumes as locked for a small number of users. This condition is now fixed in this version of the SoftRAID driver.

No more unmountable exFAT volumes:

This one slipped by when we originally added support for exFAT volumes. If a user entered a volume name that was longer than 11 characters either when they were creating an exFAT volume or erasing one, the volume would be unmountable. We fixed this by checking the length of the volume name before creating or erasing the volume.

SoftRAID 6.2.1 for Mac is now available

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At OWC, we work constantly to deliver the best software and hardware solutions so our customers have the best computing experience possible. We are excited to announce the release of SoftRAID 6.2.1 for Mac which adds compatibility for macOS Monterey 12.2, as well as bringing new features and improvements to SoftRAID.

Highlights of SoftRAID 6.2.1

– SoftRAID 6.2.1 is compatible with macOS Monterey 12.2.
– IMPROVED: support for exFAT volumes.
– IMPROVED: the driver to mark all SoftRAID volumes as removable in the IORegistry. This prevents a kernel panic when a SoftRAID Time Machine backup volume is disconnected.
– PREVENTS: a hang when erasing SoftRAID disks with Apple’s Disk Utility application.
– PREVENTS: a kernel panic when connecting SoftRAID disks to the USB-A port on M1 Macs.
– FIXED: an occasional kernel panic during prolonged i/o to a SoftRAID volume composed of NVMe blades.
– FIXED: a bug in the SoftRAID driver which causes the “Volume locked” dialog to mistakenly be displayed when a Mac comes out of sleep. Note: Users still receiving this error message in 6.2.1 have a hardware issue where disks are renumbered during sleep.
– FIXED: a problem in the SoftRAID driver which prevents validating nonRAID, RAID 0, 1 and 1+0 volumes.

You can download SoftRAID 6.2.1 here.

OWC Announces Release of SoftRAID 3.0 for Windows

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OWC, the premier zero-emissions Mac and PC technology company, and a respected provider of Memory, External Drives, SSDs, Mac & PC Docking Solutions, Network Attached Storage, and Performance Upgrade Kits, announces the release of SoftRAID 3.0 for Windows. The latest version of its powerful RAID management solution now includes support for RAID 5 on Windows 10 and 11.

SoftRAID 3.0 for Windows enables users to create powerful RAID 0/1/5 solutions for maximum drive capacity, fast data access, and robust data protection. SoftRAID for windows provides faster RAIDs with management and drive monitoring that other Windows utilities fail to provide. SoftRAID’s streamlined interface makes it incredibly easy to set up and manage RAID volumes and provides a level of performance and protection you can’t get with other RAID solutions.

What’s New in SoftRAID 3 for Windows

  • New RAID level: adds RAID 5
  • Compatible: Works with Windows 11 and 10

    • “SoftRAID for windows provides faster RAIDs with management and drive monitoring that other Windows utilities fail to provide. RAID 5 has been one of the most requested features from our users, so we’re excited to add RAID 5 to SoftRAID for Windows and expand the cross-platform capability SoftRAID,” said Rick Rockhold, Vice President Software Development, Windows & Mobile. “RAID 5 opens up the next level of data protection and access to our Windows customers.”

    SoftRAID is ideal for anyone who needs to safely store and backup massive amounts of data, including video editors, audio producers, photographers, and graphic designers.

    SoftRAID Highlights:

  • Advanced: Create RAID 0/1/5 with Windows and RAID 0/1/4/5/1+0 (10) with Macs
  • Universal: SoftRAID works with both Windows and Macs and built-in OWC MacDrive technology lets you seamlessly move SoftRAID volumes between OSes
  • Protected: SoftRAID Monitor constantly watches your disks and alerts you if problems are detected
  • Validated: Volume validation ensures sectors can be read and parity is correct
  • Certified: Checks disks before use to ensure they are safe for data storage
  • Vigilant: Error prediction helps protect against unexpected failure

    • SoftRAID’s core RAID creation and management technology has been finely tuned over 20 years of development. It’s ideal for voluminous data roles including audio/video production and editing, photography, graphic design, database servers, financial applications, and more. Basically, it is the brain for running, maintaining, and protecting your RAID arrays.

    Pricing & Availability

    SoftRAID for Windows 3.0 is a free update for current SoftRAID 2.0 users. To purchase a new license, upgrade from SoftRAID 1.0, or add additional seats to a current SoftRAID license please visit the OWC Software Store (software.owcdigital.com). You can try SoftRAID for FREE with the full featured 14-day trial.

    SoftRAID also ships with select OWC enclosures including ThunderBays, ThunderBlade, Express 4M2, Mercury Elite Pro Quad, Mercury Pro U.2 Dual, and Accelsiors.

    Compatibility
    SoftRAID 3 for Windows compatible with Windows 10 and 11. SoftRAID is licensed per computer, additional discounted seat purchases are available https://software.owcdigital.com.

    SoftRAID 6.2 for Mac is now available

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    OWC, the premier zero-emissions Mac and PC technology company, and a respected provider of Memory, External Drives, SSDs, Mac & PC docking solutions, and performance upgrade kits, announces the availability of SoftRAID 6.2 for Mac, adding compatibility for new macOS 12 Monterey and for the first time ever, support for APFS volumes.

    SoftRAID is the most powerful, intuitive RAID management software on the market for macOS and Windows. It has impressive features like multiple RAID options and predictive disk failure monitoring that provide a level of performance that you can’t get with hardware RAID. The all-new SoftRAID 6.2 builds on this solid foundation with new technology and features, making it the most powerful RAID utility available.

    What’s New in SoftRAID 6.2 for Mac

    Compatible
    SoftRAID 6.2 adds support for the all-new macOS 12 – Monterey.

    APFS
    For the first time ever, SoftRAID supports the creation, management, and monitoring of APFS volumes and enables access to encrypted APFS volumes created with Disk Utility1

    Incredibly Quick
    The re-engineered SoftRAID driver features a new method of handling TRIM commands on SSDs. The new mechanism is 3x faster than before. What does this mean in the real world? For example, using SoftRAID with an OWC Accelsior 8M2 PCIe card enables continuous data transfer over 10GB/s! This level of performance isn’t possible in previous versions of SoftRAID and is impossible with RAID volumes not using TRIM commands, like Apple RAID.2

    “SoftRAID is for anyone who needs to safely store and backup important data, including audio/video pros, photographers, archivers, families, and small businesses,” said Tim Standing, OWC VP of Software Development – Mac. “SoftRAID offers vast advantages over hardware RAID and makes catastrophic data loss a thing of the past.”

    At SoftRAID’s core are RAID creation and management technology that has been finely tuned over 20 years of development. Multiple RAID levels give you maximum volume capacity, optimal drive efficiency, data protection, or a combination of attributes. SoftRAID is perfect for anyone who needs to store and back up massive amounts of data safely.

    SoftRAID Highlights:

    Universal: SoftRAID works with both Mac and Windows and built-in OWC MacDrive technology lets you seamlessly move SoftRAID volumes between OSes
    Advanced: Create RAID 0/1/4/5/1+0 (10) with Macs, RAID 0/1 with Windows machines
    Streamlined: Disk tiles are grouped together by enclosure making it easier to keep track of multiple drives
    Licensing: Easily activate, deactivate, and add additional discounted seats
    Protected: SoftRAID Monitor constantly watches your disks and alerts you if problems are detected 
    Validated: Volume validation ensures sectors can be read and parity is correct
    Certified: Checks disks before use to ensure they are safe for data storage
    Vigilant: Error prediction helps protect against unexpected failure
    SoftRAID is powerful yet easy-to-use RAID software that maximizes drive capacity offers faster performance and protects against data loss. It’s ideal for voluminous data roles, including audio/video production and editing, photography, graphic design, database servers, financial applications, and more. It is the brain for running, maintaining, and protecting your RAID arrays.

    Pricing & Availability
    SoftRAID 6.2 is a free upgrade for current SoftRAID 6 users and discounted upgrades are available at the OWC Software Store for SoftRAID 5 users. SoftRAID also ships with select OWC enclosures including ThunderBays, ThunderBlade, Express 4M2, Mercury Elite Pro Quad, Mercury Pro U.2 Dual, and Accelsiors. As always, you can test drive SoftRAID for yourself, FREE, with the full-featured 14-day trial.

    Compatibility
    SoftRAID 6.2 for Mac is compatible with macOS 10.12 or later including macOS 12. Apple silicon (M1) Macs require macOS 11.3 or later. SoftRAID 2 for Windows works with Windows 10. SoftRAID is licensed per computer, additional discounted seat purchases are available https://software.owc.com.

    OWC Radio – Tim Standing talks SoftRAID

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    Tim Standing, who leads Mac software development at OWC, talks with host Cirina Catania about the latest SoftRAID version 6, which is now available for Windows as well as Mac. They discuss the ability to predict disc failure, the importance of certifying your discs, monitoring for health reports…and, of course, pizza recipes! It’s informative and yummy.