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Setup
OWC ThunderBay 4 over Thunderbolt (over 5 years old), Mac Studio (Apple silicon), macOS 26.6.2 (25G83). SoftRAID 8.6.1 with driver 8.6. I also tried app 9.0.2, and the loaded driver stayed 8.6. Four Crucial CT2000BX500SSD1 SSDs (firmware M6CR030, about 44,300 to 44,700 hours of use, 0 I/O errors). Two RAID 4 volumes, DataDrive and Video Edit.
What happened
SoftRAID predicted one SSD would fail in 2 to 6 months. I hot swapped it following OWC's article. The replacement is a TEAM T2532TB (2,048,408,248,320 bytes, serial TPBF2503260020103024, firmware X0626A0).
Initializing the new disk succeeds. Add Disk never starts a rebuild. The log shows "SoftRAID Tool: The command 86 encountered the error -54" at 2026.09.21 01:31:52 (app 9.0.2) and again at 08:30:17 (app 8.6.1). Each time, the disk disappeared from SoftRAID and Disk Utility a few minutes after Add Disk. The tile showed only 72 I/O requests and 0 errors. The log has no entry for the disk dropping.
Next I erased the disk in Disk Utility (I now see your notes mention Disk Utility erase issues) and wrote 200 GB with dd at a steady 375 MB/s with no errors. During a read test afterward, the disk vanished ("Disk Not Ejected Properly") and the Mac kernel panicked. The panic is a kernel data abort, and the backtrace lists com.apple.driver.SoftRAID (8.6) along with IOAHCIBlockStorage and IOStorageFamily. The 8.5 notes mention fixes for RAID 4 and 5 panics when disks disconnect while mounted, so this may be a different code path or a regression.
After the reboot, both volumes mounted degraded with a missing disk, and the three original disks showed no errors.
Also noticed
System Report lists two SoftRAID extensions, both loaded: com.apple.driver.SoftRAID 8.6 in /System/Library/Extensions, and com.softraid.driver.SoftRAID 7.0.1 in /Library/StagedExtensions (dated 4/9/23). Disk Utility shows SMART "Verified" for the new SSD.
Questions
- What does command 86 error -54 mean, and is a panic like this known?
- Should the old 7.0.1 driver be removed, and how?
- Should I validate before rebuilding, and can that be done while the volumes are degraded?
- Is it safe to put the original SSD back to restore redundancy while I sort out the new one?
- What data can I provide that would help troubleshoot?
Posted : 21/09/2026 8:38 am
Topic starter
If it helps, here are lines from the SoftRAID.log:
2026.09.21 - 01:31:52 - SoftRAID Tool: The command 86 encountered the error -54. 2026.09.21 - 08:30:17 - SoftRAID Tool: The command 86 encountered the error -54. 2026.09.21 - 09:02:58 - SoftRAID Driver: A disk (disk8, SoftRAID ID: 088236AE341AB680) for the SoftRAID volume "DataDrive" (disk9) was removed or stopped responding while the volume was mounted and in use. 2026.09.21 - 09:04:24 - SoftRAID Driver: SoftRAID driver loaded, version 8.6. 2026.09.21 - 09:05:32 - SoftRAID Driver: The SoftRAID volume "DataDrive" is missing one or more disks. It has been mounted but will not offer the normal level of data protection.
Posted : 21/09/2026 8:43 am
Don't attach "logs". What we prefer is the SoftRAID tech support file, utiltiies menu.
Please attach one.
I do note the SSD you have is likely contributing to this issue.
The Team Group AX2 Series is a budget consumer SATA SSD, not designed for RAID or sustained workload use. Team Group ships that model number with multiple different controllers/firmware branches across production runs, and X0626A0 is one of several variants. It cannot handle heavy IO loads, such as in a RAID volume.
This specific drive class does produce unusual behavior under rebuild stress that can expose issues that don't appear in normal operation.
I may know more when I get the support file.
Posted : 22/09/2026 1:41 pm
Topic starter
Thanks so much for your reply. I have attached a tech support file per your request:
I will wait to do anything until I hear back. Do you have a list of recommended SSD's for the ThunderBay 4? I currently have three Crucial CT2000BX500SSD1 drives (firmware M6CR030) as the rest of the array, and I'm not sure those are ideal for RAID either. I'd rather buy something you've verified handles sustained RAID rebuild loads than guess again.
Also, while I wait on a replacement, is it safe to put the original drive back in? It's the one SoftRAID flagged as likely to fail in 2 to 6 months, but it has 0 errors and I removed it before it failed. I'd like to restore redundancy in the meantime if that's not risky.
Again I really appreciate your help!!! Many thanks!
Posted : 23/09/2026 7:09 am
Topic starter
Just Following up, hopefully the support file I attached is correct. Wanted to check in given both volumes are still running degraded with no redundancy. Many thanks!!
Posted : 30/09/2026 2:14 pm
Your Crucial are also QLC!
Determining whether a drive uses QLC can be chalenging, as manufacturers rarely advertise it prominently.They do not want you to know when a drive is low quality, they just want to sell in volume.
The most reliable method is to check the TBW (Terabytes Written) endurance rating in the drive's spec sheet.
For a 2TB drive, a rating below 400TBW is a strong indicator of QLC. Your BX500 2TB has a 360TBW rating, which is one of the signals that identified it as QLC.
Searching the exact model number along with "NAND type" or "QLC" will often turn up a review or spec breakdown that confirms it.
Posted : 01/10/2026 7:44 am
