SMART Testing : Forced testing using SMART technology built into many drives.Allows you to non-destructively test a volume by reading SoftRAID per sector to ensure that there are no errors. You can configure the test to run from 1 to 8 times across the disk using random order. Disk testing : Allows you to test every sector on the disk to make sure the data can be written and read correctly.SoftRAID Lite includes a number of features that go far beyond what Apple provides in Disk Utility: In addition, for mirrored arrays, the monitor will tell you if the mirror needs to be restored, if the disk is missing from the mirror, or if the restore process has completed. The SoftRAID Monitor will notify you of any errors that occur on the drive, including SMART errors, volume failures, predicted failures, or high wear SSDs. If you have at least one RAID array, the SoftRAID monitor runs in the background and monitors the disks in use in the array. You can also specify the size of the volume you want to create. You can also choose the format type (HFS +, Encrypted HFS +, Case Sensitive HFS +, or MS-DOS). If two or more drives are selected, you can choose to have SoftRAID create a striped or mirrored array.
If you have two or more disks initialized or converted to use SoftRAID, you can select the appropriate disk chunks and then select the option to create a new volume. However, when this feature becomes available, I highly recommend that you create a current backup of your data before doing any conversion from Apple to SoftRAID or vice versa.
We used the transform function in previous versions of the full version of SoftRAID and it worked as expected. The tile also contains information about SMART status, hours of use, and format.
Inside each tile is information about the drive, including size, model, how it is connected to your Mac, and whether it uses an Apple driver or SoftRAID. The left pane contains tiles representing each physical drive connected to your Mac. SoftRAID Lite, and for that matter the full version of SoftRAID, uses a tiled interface presented in a two-pane window. If you ever want to stop using SoftRAID, it includes an uninstall feature that will uninstall the application.
The SoftRAID driver is 100 percent Mac compatible and provides boot support for all software RAIDs created with SoftRAID. However, while the SoftRAID driver may be present, the Mac will not use it unless the disk has been formatted or converted by SoftRAID.
Apple has included the SoftRAID driver since OS X Tiger was released in 2005. The only unusual bit occurs when the application is first launched the SoftRAID driver must be installed or updated. SoftRAID Lite is installed as an application in the Mac / Applications folder.
Along with the new SoftRAID Lite, there has been a corresponding price cut, making it an economical choice for those looking for basic RAID support removed by Apple.Īpple brought back some RAID capabilities to macOS Sierra, but did so without any improvement, essentially just pasting the ancient code back into the Disk Utility app. The folks at SoftRAID took their respected SoftRAID application and compared it to the basics needed to replace Disk Utility's lost RAID support. One of the developers of these utilities was SoftRAID, the creator of the popular software RAID application for the Mac. Many features have long been taken for granted in Disk Utility, including support for creating and managing RAID-based storage systems.Īfter removing the Disk Utility features, the utility developers have also provided some missing features. The release of OS X El Capitan heralded the transformation of Disk Utility into a barely used version of its previous version.