SoftRAID Forum - Recent Topics

Move Thunderbay RAID drives to a different computer

mkspratlin — Wed, 20 May 2026 17:20:24 +0000

I have 2 thunderbay enclosures set up with drives in a raid array connected to a 2017 iMac Pro. I am trying to replace the iMac with a Mac Mini including moving the drives to be connected to it. How can I move the drives to the Mac Mini and keep the drives and RAID configured the same?

configuration:

thunderbay 1:

Drive A - main volume, primary disk

Drive B - main volume, secondary disk

Drive C - main volume, secondary disk

Drive D - working volume, primary disk

thunderbay 2:

Drive A - cc 1 primary disk and cc 2 primary disk

Drive B - cc 1 secondary disk and cc 2 secondary disk

Drive C - cc 1 secondary disk and cc 2 secondary disk

I didn’t configure this originally, it has kind of fallen into my lap. Any guidance anyone can give would be greatly appreciated!

Should I be concerned by this report (1st time seeing it)

mpschaefer — Mon, 18 May 2026 01:27:46 +0000

I received the following report this morning from SoftRAID :

The disk disk4 has 2 i/o errors and should be replaced.
The disk disk8 has 2 i/o errors and should be replaced.

Now, if I use SoftRAID, Disk Utility or DriveDX the two disks mentioned 4 and 8 are NOT part of my SoftRAID volume nor in the chassis (which is a 4 Bay Mercury Elite Pro).

Disk4 and Disk 8 are the same drive (it's been doing that for a long time showing up as 2 in SoftRAID but only as one of them in Disk Utility or DriveDX always the non-? disk number). ,

The indicated drive is the Active Backup of the SoftRAID volume and one an hourly sync cycle with the Mac is running. DriveDX is not indicating any issues and I ran a Short Test on it and it passed.

I am running a Validation on the softRAID just to be sure of no issues there.

Is this something I should be concerned about?

Given the drive is a non-SoftRAID one I am inclined to ignore it for now and simply ensure that my cold storage and offsite backup is current with my SoftRAID JIC.

3227 3228 3229 3230

Thanks.

Regards,

Michael

SoftRAID volumes mounting on MacOS Sequoia but not on Windows 11 Pro

kzgdriver — Sun, 17 May 2026 03:03:58 +0000

I created 3 different RAID volumes using SoftRAID about 9 months ago and up until now I've been able to interchange mounting them on either my Mac computer or my Windows computer. 2 of the Volumes are RAID 5 and the other is RAID 1+0.

For some reason, one of the RAID 5 volumes and the RAID 1+0 volume are no longer mounting on my Windows computer but still work fine when connected to my Mac. This has happened in the past but usually if I shutdown the Windows computer and attach the drives to my Mac and let SoftRAID mount the drives, I was able to then unmount the drives from the Mac and then attach them to my Windows computer and restart and then the volumes would then properly mount on Windows. I haven't done any updates whatsoever to Windows so nothing else has changed with regards to my computer.

On my Mac SoftRAID doesn't report any errors with any of the volumes and everything looks normal. But if I launch SoftRAID on Windows, the RAID 5 volume now shows up as a RAID 0 with 0 bytes and the text "(not mounted)". The RAID 1+0 volume does shows up as being the correct RAID array and the correct number of bytes, but also with the text "(not mounted)". Can someone please get back to me with some suggestions on how to get these two volumes mounting properly on my Windows computer again?

Softraid Free Trial Expired

caprichoso — Mon, 04 May 2026 07:25:23 +0000

Mac 26.4.1 and SoftRaid 8.6.1 Drver 8.6

I get the message "SoftRaid Free Trial Expired" which is not dismissable. Clicking on "OK" or "More Info" does not remove the message. How do I get rid of it?

My array is working as it should. Quite puzzling why I should have to pay $150 to get a current license when I haven't used the configuration software for years and none of my other RAID enclosures require an annual fee to keep using their configuration software.

Apple Partition AND SoftRAID Partition?

smayer97 — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 06:17:28 +0000

Knowing that macOS can no longer boot from a SoftRAID partition since v6.x, is it possible to have both an Apple partition AND a SoftRAID partition on the boot drive, or can only one driver deal with the entire physical drive?

I ask because I want to know if there is any way to still take advantage of SoftRAID monitoring, either on the boot drive, or on another partition on the same drive.

If this is not possible, does this mean that SoftRAID cannot be used in any way to manage the boot drive?

Also, if this is not possible, was this ever possible with previous versions, e.g. v5.x or earlier? (I was introduced to SoftRAID as far back as v2.)

SoftRAID RAID 0 volume not mounted

laramie.goode — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 15:32:08 +0000

Hello,

I have a Fortis 5C 5-Bay USB-C External Drive configured in a RAID 0 with data that will not mount. I can see the physical disks listed, and the volume shows all 5 disks as connected but simply states the volume is not mounted. Does anyone know how to get the volume re-mounted without loss of data?

Thank-You

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New Mercury Elite Pro Quad - Slow Performance?

rslygh — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 15:05:35 +0000

I've had a new Mercury Elite Pro Quad running for a few days. I purchased it without drives and installed 4x 24TB IronWolf Pros for it, set up in RAID0. It's connected via USB-C to a USB3.1 PCIE card, on a physical server running Windows Server 2025. It has been running very slow compared to what I expected: 40-45MB/s read and write. In comparison, I have a 5 year old, 12TB G-RAID 2 disk enclosure connected to the same PCI card, and it tested just over 450MB/s for both read and write. Both drives are set to performance, not the default quick-removal option.

After creating the RAID with SoftRAID, I did reformat the drive from within Windows from NTFS to ReFS. It's meant to be used as a local repository for Veeam, which is why I want to use ReFS. I'm now in the process of clearing the drive so I can recreate the RAID, leaving it NTFS format to test again in case ReFS is the problem. However, has anyone had similar problems, or have any suggestions? Or has anyone else used ReFS with SoftRAID without issue? I did reach out to support earlier this morning, but thought I'd try the forum too in case anyone else has had a similar experience. Thanks

ThunderBay 8 (OWCTB83TKY, 2020) — Permanent Orange Light After SoftRAID 8 Premium First Activation — Complete Diagnostics Included

Rahul869 — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 09:15:45 +0000

Hello SoftRAID Community and OWC Engineers,

I am posting this with full diagnostic detail in hopes of
finding a resolution before resorting to hardware replacement.
I have done extensive troubleshooting and believe this is a
software/firmware-recoverable issue.

─────────────────────────────────────
UNIT AND SYSTEM DETAILS
─────────────────────────────────────
Enclosure: OWC ThunderBay 8
Drives installed: 8 × 12TB new drives (Thunderbay 8 filled)
Host Mac: 2019 MacBook Pro
macOS: 26.3 (Tahoe)
SoftRAID: Version 8 Premium — newly activated subscription
─────────────────────────────────────
WHAT HAPPENED — THE EXACT SEQUENCE
─────────────────────────────────────
1. Installed SoftRAID 8 Premium fresh on 2019 MBP
2. Connected ThunderBay 8 via Thunderbolt 3 cable
3. Restarted Mac with ThunderBay powered on and connected
4. SoftRAID and Disk Utility BOTH detected all 8 drives
successfully — unit appeared completely normal
5. All 8 drives visible, healthy, SMART status green
6. Approximately 2 minutes later — all drives vanished
from SoftRAID and Disk Utility simultaneously
7. Front panel light shifted to solid permanent ORANGE
8. Unit has remained orange ever since — no recovery

─────────────────────────────────────
TROUBLESHOOTING ALREADY PERFORMED
─────────────────────────────────────
✅ Tried 3 different Thunderbolt 3 cables — no change
✅ Tried all Thunderbolt ports on 3 different Macs:
- 2019 MacBook Pro (macOS 26.3)
- 2017 MacBook Pro (maxed out)
- M5 Max MacBook Pro (just received)
All results: solid orange, no detection
✅ Restarted all computers with unit already connected
and powered on — no change
✅ Checked System Settings > Privacy & Security for
blocked OWC system software — nothing blocked
✅ Checked System Settings > Login Items & Extensions
> OWC — toggled off and on, restarted — no change
✅ Unit powers on (fan running, green internal light)
— power supply appears functional
✅ Orange light is solid, not flashing — steady state

─────────────────────────────────────
MY ANALYSIS OF WHAT HAPPENED
─────────────────────────────────────
I believe the following sequence caused the failure:

When SoftRAID 8 Premium activated its driver for the
first time, it simultaneously initialised and polled
all 8 drives — causing a sudden peak power draw inside
the enclosure. The ThunderBay 8 (manufactured 2020,
approximately 6-7 years old) may have had a weakened
PCIe/Thunderbolt controller board. The peak load from
simultaneous 8-drive initialisation pushed it into a
fault state from which it has not recovered.

The drives themselves appear undamaged — the failure
was in the controller/data handshake layer, not the
storage layer.

─────────────────────────────────────
QUESTIONS FOR THE COMMUNITY AND OWC
─────────────────────────────────────
1. Is there a firmware reset or power cycle sequence
for the ThunderBay 8 that can recover the PCIe
controller from a fault state?

2. Is there a known issue with SoftRAID 8 Premium
simultaneously initialising 8 drives causing peak
load failure on older ThunderBay 8 units?

3. Can the Thunderbolt controller (Intel JHL7440)
be reflashed or reset via any OWC utility?

4. Is the internal PCIe controller board available
as a standalone replacement part?

5. Has anyone experienced solid orange light after
a SoftRAID upgrade and recovered without hardware
replacement?

─────────────────────────────────────
WHAT I HAVE NOT TRIED YET
─────────────────────────────────────
- Thunderbolt/USB4 device tree check on M5 Max
(doing this this month and will update this post)
- Removing all 8 drives and testing with empty
enclosure to isolate drive load vs controller fault
- Testing with only 1 drive installed to reduce
peak power draw during spin-up

─────────────────────────────────────
UPDATE IN PROGRESS
─────────────────────────────────────
I will update this post with the M5 Max Thunderbolt
device tree result and the empty enclosure test result
within the next few hours.

Any guidance from the SoftRAID engineering team or
the community would be deeply appreciated. I am a
filmmaker with critical project data dependent on
this unit being recoverable.

Thank you,
Rahul Jain

RAID not mounting

AllenRobbins — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 15:22:11 +0000

Mac Studio M2 ULTRA OS 15.7.1 (24G231)

All of a sudden my drive will not mount. Its a ThunderBay 4 mini - Thunderbolt 2 Chasis with 4 1TB Drives Striped RAID5

SoftRaid shows no errors. Tech Support file is attached.

Anyone have any ideas?

3214

3216

Migrating drives to new enclosure

greatnate — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 08:57:03 +0000

Unfortunately one of the fan bearings has failed on my 8 month old OWC Express 4M2. I wish they had used Noctua fans. I am being sent an advanced replacement, and want to migrate the SSDs to the new enclosure while maintaining the RAID 5 array. What is the process for this? My assumption is that I put the drives in the new enclosure in the same order and SoftRAID will recognise it, and take care of it from there perhaps needing to validate.