New Mac Studio M2. SoftRaid 8.3. ThunderBay Flex8. All Volumes Disappeared Waking Up - Not A Good Start!

@tssrshot 

Can you try uploading the support file again?

Sent.

@tssrshot 

Did you attach it? Its not showing up...

I did, but let me try a different browser.

@tssrshot 

Got it, thanks!

@tssrshot 

However, your enclosure was not connected when you saved the support file. Can you connect it, and save another and attach it?

@tssrshot 

However, your enclosure was not connected when you saved the support file. Can you connect it, and save another and attach it?

Is it the enclosure after all? More weird things just happened, all repetitions of previous events. (what's beginning to concern me is any repetition; once could be a fluke after all).  

(1) After loading my 16TB pair for archiving projects, one volume would not eject in Finder. The volume is on a 16TB disk. This issue before was also only tied to 16TB disks, and it did it on the Studio with different disks/volumes. When I go into SoftRAID and try to Unmount the volume via SoftRAID, clicking "Unmount" generates this error like clockwork: "An internal part of the SoftRAID application has stopped functioning properly. Please quit SoftRAID and relaunch it." 

Only when going to Disk Utility does it give any kind of clue at all, and there upon eject it says: "Failed to unmount Master DRP Backups" because it is currently in use by "Finder." 

Finally I got it to Unmount by Logging Out and relaunching Finder but am not completely convinced that's ideal or healthy for the disk.

(2) Just now , the disk in Bay 4 and the disk in Bay 7 did not show under Disks. As it turns out, Bay 7 and Bay 3 were in a RAID 1.

Upon starting I saw an error: "degraded, missing primary disk." But instead of remembering that the RAID was between the disks in Bay 3 and Bay 7, and because I wasn't organized enough (or just overwhelmed by how long this has now been dragging on as doubt in my mind increases), I only removed Disk 3/Bay 3, which fixed the error.....But I now see that the real reason the error was generated was that two of the disks in the enclosure itself were not showing. And because the disk in bay 7 was not showing, it separated the RAID and generated the error message. 

You've let me know that disks not showing can only be a hardware issue. 

I was pretty sure we'd ruled out the enclosure before, and recalling your hardware statement, every time this has happened since (about 2 - 3), I have tried to eliminate as many variables as possible. Each time, instead of instantly checking cables or power-cycling the Flex 8, I've done none of that and have conscientiously touched nothing. Trying to be methodical in the moment, each time I have merely re-started the computer alone. Leaving everything else identical. Consistently that has resolved things and all disks then show. 

Last week I spoke at length with phone support and cleaned the entire unit very carefully with compressed air. The disks not showing issue has happened now on both computers so it does not seem to be an Intel vs. Silicon issue. I've also tried two different TB cables from OWC. First a long 2m, and then a short 0.7 meter. Just now it happened with the 0.7 meter. Which is a new cable from two months ago. It's happened connected directly to the computer, and connected through the TB 3 Pro Dock. 

Thankfully most of the time all the disks show but that also means I can't replicate this with any consistency.

I'd really like to get to the bottom of whether I have a Flex 8 hardware warranty issue, or something else. And if it is indeed a Flex hardware issue, then how in the world am I supposed to prove it when I can't even replicate it with any predictability myself.

If everything goes smoothly for you with a 16TB Toshiba hooked up to a Mac Studio, that would be a pretty good indicator. Sorry for the long post. Not sure how else to document these things. 

Oh man, now things just took a new next level. Getting the disk back into the bay did indeed show and the volume does mount. But now instead of a single RAID 1 volume, two volumes with the identical volume name are showing. "Daily YouTube Uploads 2024" appears twice both in Finder and in SoftRAID. 

Within SoftRAID, now instead of rebuilding or recognizing the volume as a RAID 1 pair, it think each volume is the primary disk in a RAID 1 that is missing. Literally I have two volumes that both show the same red error: "Degraded. Missing Secondary Disk." 

Each identical volume points towards each disk that was originally together as the RAID.

Just got another website cancellation three days ago. My business is beginning to be aversely affected by whatever has caused this. 

Just confirmed this follows the computer. Directly connected to i9 MacBook Pro with Monterey/SoftRAID 7. Everything I wrote above just now has followed over. So basically, the disk in Bay 7 didn't appear, it made the disk in Bay 3 say the RAID had been degraded, I removed the disk in Bay 3 not realizing that the problem was the lack of Disk 7, and upon putting Disk/Bay 3 back in, I now have two identical volumes that it thinks is the primary disk, each missing the secondary disk and showing red in SoftRAID, yellow in the minimized menu bar icon.

Did we just determine that my enclosure has a problem? What should I do to rebuild this RAID now, since it currently thinks each disk is the primary disk for two broken volumes instead of a single RAID 1. 

Going to keep working on this into the night with updates. Tried removing and reinstalling both disks. No fix. Then tried removing both disks and swapping spots. That didn't work either. Still thinks each is the primary disk for an identical volume. Now tried power cycling the Flex 8 and swapping from the 85W TB port (where it was plugged in) to the 15W port. No fix.

I think the next step is going to be "Remove Secondary Disk" ( https://software.owc.com/knowledge-base/secondary-disk-troubleshooting/# ) but my concern is that this will just leave two identical non-RAID volumes, and because each takes the full disk space, that it will not let me re-build the RAID without deleting one and attempting to re-build.

Pretty short of breath now. Theoretically I shouldn't lose any data but need to find out what's going on with the enclosure and am well over two weeks into a lot of lost time trying to sort this out. Which has tanked productivity. 

@guitarflex 

Volume not unmounting is macOS. Usually time machine, or spotlight. That is why the volume could not unmount, causing the SoftRAID app to crash. (We need a better error message when that happens)

When the two disks were not appearing, were any lights (in bay 3 and 7 apparently) blinking slightly?

If you just power cycle the enclosure, all disks come back?

@guitarflex 

What happened was the mirror "failed over", as it was supposed to, when the primary hangs. Its easy to fix, but has to be done manually.

(You are going to be an expert in SoftRAID after all this, unfortunately)

Assuming no saves were done since this event happened, both volumes are identical. If you saved any new files, you need to check manually.

I would pick the volume with the newer creation date, disable Safeguard, delete the volume, then "Add secondary disk" and let the mirror rebuild. It can be used immediately once you add the disk back.

@softraid-support I don't use time machine. I saw no blinking whatsoever. Currently about to "Remove Missing Secondary Disk" to this now broken RAID 1. My concern is it probably won't automatically rebuild now, since it thinks each identical volume is the primary disk.

Before I go ahead and do this (4TB over HDD will take all night), doesn't this notification confirm that if I remove the missing secondary disk, it's not going to let me point the new secondary disk to the location that already has the data on it verbatim? It's going to leave two identical non-RAID volumes, and probably going to make me delete one of those volumes first, right?

Edit: Not showing attachment or letting attach: Message says "do you really want to remove all secondary disks from the volume "YouTube Daily Uploads 2024?" IF you reconnect them, they will be mounted as separate Mirror volumes"