Laughably slow speeds on Windows host

This seems like a volume directory issue, as SoftRAID does not talk on the file system level and if the volumes start out OK, then get progressively slower, I can't think of anything else.

On the Mac, we have Disk Warrior to rebuild volume directories. When I was last using Windows, there were a few utilities that could rebuild/optimize directories. Do such utilities still exist? What happens if you run one?

Hopefully the support team for Windows can help!

Thank you for your response!

I don't really know when, or how, everything slows down.
I am also not aware of anything on Windows that could accomplish what DiskWarrior does. Have never needed anything like it. If anyone can recommend anything, I am all ears.

I'm using two different enclosures, two different RAID configurations all with different OEM drives.
Both are having issues. The RAID0 setup should also be faster, I would think.

What I haven't ruled out is the host...

I have both macOS and Windows machines (different from current host) that support TB3/4.
If I connect my Thunderbays to the other Windows machine, would it be able to read/write to the drives? I understand if I need to install SoftRaid - but I wouldn't need a license, right? And the data would be intact?
If I connect my Thunderbays to my macOS host, which is capable of reading/writing to NTFS drives, can I run something like DiskWarrior to 'cure' the drives? Tedious having to do this, but this would be purely for diag reasons. Same question about SoftRaid licensing.

This is a real bummer, because I invested a lot of time, and money, into going with the OWC setup via TB - and it's been nothing but headaches. This is NOT OWC or SoftRaid's fault - I am almost certain this is an issue with Windows...it always is. Really tempted to move to Linux/FreeNAS, but unsure how well these enclosures work in that environment.

@need4swede 

Disk Warrior can only repair HFS volumes.

However, what you can do easily enough is connect to your Mac and get AJA System Test.

Go to the App store and gert AJA System Test Lite.
Run AJA, set resolution to 8K video, Codec to 16bitRGBA, and filesize to 64GB.
Next, in settings, check "Dual DMA engine".
Select your volume to test.
See what results you get. That will tell you the potential. Do this when it has slowed down, so you have a good reference.

Note: Performance is much better on Macs' that Windows, because of the ability in MacOS to queue IO's in a certain way that is not available in windows.

@softraid-support 

Thank you - I will give that shot.

Could you confirm my question about connecting it to a different host? Is it enough to just have SoftRaid installed (unlicensed) and will all the data be safe?

Thanks!

Here's an example video of how it's running:

https://i.imgur.com/afSIU90.mp4

I am transferring three zip files, each 2GB in size, over from my NVME to my SoftRaid RAID5 array.

As you can see, it starts off strong - but then just falls flat on its face and sometimes hangs for long periods of time.
The B:\ drive is the mounted array drive - the other 8 drives active in the video are the individual drives.

@need4swede 

Yes you can connect to any other computer and it will mount normally. All you need is the SoftRAID driver installed. There is no system specific data on the drives. I saw you have a case now, Once you get a reply, send the support info requested. Here is a link to start that:

Run the Windows Diagnostic program with the drives connected. You can download it here: https://download.owc.com/diagnostics/windows

This should generate a .ZIP file - When you get a response, reply with the zip file and any other descriptive information that can help them (copy/paste this post).

I included my diag zip when I made the support ticket - but I will provide it again if need be.

So here are the results of trying different hosts:

1. Different Windows Host:

Drives connect and read just fine, but the same behavior occurs. Transfers seemingly start quick, but then crash land and remain slow throughout - in the <20Mb/s range for write speeds.

2. macOS Host:

Hooked it up to my M1 Air and received: This disk you attached was not readable by this computer
Connected a different external drive via Thunderbolt (also NTFS formatted) and it read it just fine.
So I was unable to do anything with it.

Curiously, after connecting it back to my original Windows host, I noticed that Windows' BitLocker padlock appeared on it.
I've never used BitLocker to encrypt my drives, so I looked into it and sure enough it wasn't encrypted (according to Windows).
I tried disabling BitLocker encryption on the drives, via CMD since it never appeared as encrypted in Control Panel, but it wouldn't work.
So I disabled the BitLocker service, rebooted and tried turning off BitLocker again via CMD - and this time Windows claimed it was 'Decrypting' the drive.

After all that jazz - boom, drives are flying.
Getting 2Gb/s+ in the RAID5 until (I assume) the cache fills up and then it slows down for a bit (still in the hundreds of Mb/s).
The RAID0 does the same, with a higher sustained speed post-cache.

But then - after several minutes of doing file transfer tests - it started happening again.
Starts out fast, then slows down to a crawl - down to double digit Mb/s.
Does that sound right for my setup? Does it have to do with how the RAID was setup? I vaugely remember it asking if it was a workstation/server, etc. Maybe that has something to do with it....

Posted by: @need4swede

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This is NOT OWC or SoftRaid's fault - I am almost certain this is an issue with Windows...it always is.

At least I was right about something!

Another thing I noticed, in addition to my above post, is that changing the drive policy changed the behavior dramatically.

Better Performance:

Initial boost in speed, then stops at 0Mb/s for several seconds - continues in the single/double digit Mb/s until transfer finishes. Painfully slow!

Quick Removal:

Only hits 300Mb/s max on RAID5, but averages a sustained speed of 200Mb/s all the way.
The RAID0 averages 400Mb/s+ the whole way through.

Not sure if this is helpful, but perhaps it can help diagnose the issue.

@need4swede 

Include this with your ticket. The Forum is only lightly monitored for Windows users at this time.

I wanted to follow up on this inquiry.

While I did share many back and forth emails with support, the resolution remains inconclusive.

After many hours of troubleshooting, including what I've mentioned above, I suspect this is a limitation of both the operating system (Windows) and Thunderbolt on said OS. My progress has resulted in a state that is at least usable - my transfer speeds are ~200MBs, which is roughly the speed of a single drive in my RAID 10 array. Is this ideal? Absolutely not, but it's a big improvement. I do question the reliability of the array and its ability to rebuild without issues, given how many obstacles I've faced just to get it to behave reasonably in its current environment.

My goal is to move away from my Thunderbay enclosures and instead mount the drives via SATA directly into a new server chassis, eliminating the DAS layout in favor of a more conventional setup. I'm hoping this will resolve these issues - if not, well I guess I'm abandoning SoftRaid altogether in favor of a different OS like TrueNAS Scale or UnRaid. I will update this post with my findings once I setup the new chassis, which should be sometime early next year.