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"macOS can't repair the disk." Thunderbay 4 with TB2/Mac Studio/Monterey 12.6.1/SoftRAIDXT 6.3

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(@scatteredbrain)
Posts: 5
Active Member
Topic starter
 

Here's the setup:

TB4 is a RAID5 array of 4x 8TB drives(24TB)

Had a couple kernel panics/reboots recently(which I'm not sure are related to anything other than a funky usb hub I have connected to the Mac Studio.

When it comes back from the reboot it displays the attached image warning.

B272E46C FEA8 442F B55F 0D0667F1C510

 

Now, I can double click on the raid drive that is the thunderbay unit...that is the one giant drive that is the RAID5 array shows up...it's just looks like it is read-only.

Which is not ideal.

If I check the softraid window it says there are no errors on the drives themselves, which makes me think this is just a software issue.

Screen Shot 2022 11 18 at 17.26.02

 

I'm thinking about uninstalling the softraid software and reinstalling it in the hopes that that will "reset" the permissions and perhaps that will turn this drive into a read-write drive again.

Because the alternative is to download everything from backblaze which will take forever...

 

But before I do that is there something anyone might have that I could try?  If I were to reinstall the softraid SW could it lose the drive totally? THAT I def. don't want to do...

 

This is Monterey 12.6.1 with latest updates and SoftRAID XT 6.3.

 

FWIW I *just upgraded to 12.6.1 a few days before this started...but I still think the kernel panics are *not* related as they have stopped since I removed the offending USB hub/device.

I'm thinking that one of these kernel panics managed to hose something that allowed softrad XT to read/write the array.

 

Thanks!

 
Posted : 18/11/2022 5:41 pm
(@softraid-support)
Posts: 8005
Member Admin
 

Apple essentially has no repair tools for MacOS HFS volumes with damaged directories.

 

So you choices are:

Backup/restore
Connect to a Intel/Big Sur or older MacOS, and run Disk Warrior to rebuild the directory.

This is a directory issue, it is not SoftRAID related. SoftRAID does not talk to the "file system", so cannot repair directories. Disk Warrior is the only applicaiton that could repair HFS volume directories. However, it is not supported on M1, or Monterey and later. So it is losing effectiveness as a repair tool, unfortunately.

 
Posted : 19/11/2022 5:42 am
(@scatteredbrain)
Posts: 5
Active Member
Topic starter
 

@softraid-support 

So you're saying basically the "restore" option is the only option, since I do not have an intel mac to connect to the TB4 and do the disk warrior procedure(nor do I have the DW SW).  

;)

Since the drive is visible, I *could* try to copy all the data off the TB4 to a temporary location and then perhaps erase and reformat the current array located on the TB4?

Do you think that if I were to do that, it's a beter idea to make the next incarnation of this array formatted as APFS?

 

 
Posted : 19/11/2022 12:11 pm
(@softraid-support)
Posts: 8005
Member Admin
 

@scatteredbrain 

APFS is in theory more robust, but still has issues. My problem with APFS at present is there are no "repair" tools when anything goes wrong.

HFS can be repaired when anything goes wrong (Disk Warrior), but is limited in the sense of needing intel computers running Big Sur or older to run.

And, on HDD's, APFS is slower, up to 50% as you start using the volume actively.

So I recommend HFS, if it was me.

 
Posted : 20/11/2022 12:13 am
(@softraid-support)
Posts: 8005
Member Admin
 

@scatteredbrain

BTW Disk Warrior 5.3 was released, which supports HFS on M1 and Ventura. Great news!

 
Posted : 16/02/2023 6:48 pm
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