SoftRAID

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Pros and Cons

SoftRAID is the premier disk driver for Mac OS X, replacing the basic functionality of Apple's RAID driver, which has not been updated since 2009. Full Specifications What's new in version 5.8.4. More Ports for A World of Possibilities. For the first time ever, the OWC Thunderbolt Hub lets you consolidate and simplify the connectivity between all your devices with all the Thunderbolt ports you’ve always wanted.

Pros
Owc So why should you buy this tool when Apple already gives you free RAID functionality with Disk Utility? The SoftRAID website has quite a list of ways in which SoftRAID is better than Apple's RAID, but is it really worth it?
SoftRAIDSoftRAID Here are a few of the more notable pros to using SoftRAID:

Softraid 6


  • Lets you easily create and modify RAIDs dynamically - add or remove disks at will.
  • You don't have to reformat to convert to a SoftRAID volume.
  • Lets you mix drive and bus type.
  • Fast read speeds with mirror RAIDs.
  • Much less expensive than a hardware RAID solution.
  • Quickly converts Apple RAIDs and volumes to SoftRAID volumes.
  • Has a background monitoring app that warns you when a RAID has errors - Apple gives you no warnings at all.
  • Includes special I/O optimizations for different purposes (i.e. workstation, server, digital video, etc).
Softraid xt big surCons
And here are a few reasons why you might not want to use SoftRAID:

Softraid Big Sur


Softraid Big Sur

  • SoftRAID volumes will not appear on systems that don't have the driver installed (which means target disk mode would not work if the host system doesn't have the SoftRAID driver - you would have to run SoftRAID on the host system and let it install the driver).
  • You must modify existing boot CDs to work with SoftRAID volumes.
  • SoftRAID disk names don't appear in the 'Bootpicker' (the startup disk interface you see when holding down Option at startup) - minor but annoying. This problem only affects drives that were originally Apple drives, that were converted to SoftRAID drives. I am told that this will be fixed in a future SoftRAID update (3.1.3).
  • Should have email alerts when RAIDs are out of sync. I am told this feature is highly requested, so it will be available in a future update as well.
  • I experienced two kernel panics while setting up RAIDs across different bus types (using a Weibetech FireWire to ATA bridge) - this may have just been a fluke.
  • Probably more likely to have stability issues with Mac OS X (for example, after a major OS upgrade). This is just a theory! SoftRAID support assures me that in the event of problems caused by a major OS upgrade, the issue is resolved with a software update within 30 days.