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Topic starter
Thanks. I remembered this (what you said earlier) about loading/mounting/ejection from very early on so I wasn't asking about rolling back to SR7 to troubleshoot that, but rather to see if the 18.4 issue appears on Apple Silicon running SR7. Since it took two hours and a complete system erase for Apple to roll me back to Sonoma over two weeks ago, and I *think* version 7 will technically still run on Sonoma, that's why I wanted to check. I've found the downloaders from OWC, but will that require a complete uninstall of version 8.3? Or can I have two versions of SoftRAID on the same computer temporarily? Or is all of that moot because of the fixed driver version?
Remaining grateful sans-emotion but to answer all your questions, the cut and dry facts are I don't even remember everything anymore now since it's gone on so long. All I can confirm now is that yesterday most definitively, when disks would not show over and over on the Studio, yes, every time I would plug into the Intel Mac, all disks/volumes showed with the same cable. No dock (direct connection in all cases).
I went ahead and generated two groups of support/sys info/sysdiagnosis files because this issue did not resolve itself once (not a single time) last night. Yet now after 12 hours off, turn on the Flex 8, turn on the Studio, and all appears fine (at least this hour) except for the lingering "18.4 - " issue.
The first before/after files correspond to the last time yesterday that a simple re-start DID remedy the issue.
The second before/after corresponds to when re-starting again did not.
In the end I got the disks online by pulling the cable and re-inserting. Same port on Studio, yes the cable was entirely & fully seated before that.
After getting things back online, finally I was able to perform a simple CCC backup to the volume created on the Intel to get around "18.4 -" When my partition map was damaged the logs said "A program attempted to read or write past the end of the volume." - So was I correct to get the impression that attempting to create the new volume with the "18.4 -" issue is what damaged the partition map? My energy was directed onto the 18.4 conundrum after that because I need to be able to create disk new disk volumes or it becomes unusable for me.
Wetransfer link is here. This folder contains both groups of files as well as screen shots of the 18.4 - issue.
This post was modified 1 year ago by GuitarFlex
This post was modified 1 year ago by SoftRAID Support
Posted : 13/02/2025 1:39 pm
Topic starter
This post updates and adds onto the previous one with the first We Transfer link. These were the conditions:
In the first link posted at the end of the previous message, those files correspond to when 4 Seagate 4TB disks were loaded in bay/slots 3-4, 5-6. No disks upon powering on. A simple re-start got the disks to show.
The link below contains the support files for the second time this behavior happened again last night, after dinner. Here I had loaded a 16TB Toshiba into slot/bay 8 and then powered up (4TB Seagate were still in bays 3, 4, 5, 6).
This time, upon loading, disks 3-4 did not show but disks 5, 6, 8 did. Re-starting the computer did not work this time.
I had to finally pull the TB cable and reinsert altogether to get all disks to show. At which point I generated the "After" set of files. That was the behavior for this new set of files.
This post was modified 1 year ago by SoftRAID Support
Posted : 13/02/2025 1:54 pm
Topic starter
Here is what we should do on the disks issue. Since we never ever see this, its either local to you, or specific to your computer.
Next time disks are missing, collect these three files:
Note what you did to trigger this event, if you can.
SoftRAID tech support file
System Report (System Settings/General/About, scroll down, and save)
System Diagnostic report, which is generated from terminal:
sudo sysdiagnose -f ~/Desktop/Restart, so the disks appear, and immediately collect the same three files.
Not to be impatient, just checking in. Did a bug report ever get over to Apple about this? And/or was anyone able to look at it to find anything else out? It's happened again a couple times this week but have been able to get disks to show via workarounds. Finally beginning to get back to work.
Bought SoftRAID 8 a couple days ago. The "Largest Free Block - 18.4" issue is still there on the purchased version so I might try reverting back to 7 since AFAIK macOS Sonoma is the last one that will run 7, and the "Largest Free Block - 18.4" isn't an issue on my i9 running SoftRAID 7. Seems if I try 7 on the Studio then maybe that helps to whittle down whether it's a bug in version 8, or unique to Silicon. But I'm not sure if that will tell us anything since I think you've told me that the driver version is tied to the OS now.
Posted : 21/02/2025 5:11 pm
There is no point to reverting to older versions of SoftRAID. the driver. version is fixed by the MacOS version. You cannot install a different version of SoftRAID into any modern version of MacOS.
One idea. What is the exact brand and model number of the drives that are disappearing?
Posted : 22/02/2025 1:28 am
We did report this BTW. No feedback on what/when we will hear back.
Refresh me on the issue with The "Largest Free Block - 18.4". I do not see it in any of your support files. thanks
Posted : 22/02/2025 1:33 am
Topic starter
Both answers in one reply:
What is the exact brand and model number of the drives that are disappearing?
Any 3.5" SATA disk. Across enclosures it has occurred with every configuration I have. Seagate 4TB EXOS disks (7E8), 16TB Toshiba MG08s. Once shown the disks never "disappear" but sometimes they do not all appear. At times I've seen different numbers of disks not appear.
There is no point to reverting to older versions of SoftRAID. the driver. version is fixed by the MacOS version. You cannot install a different version of SoftRAID into any modern version of MacOS.
Thanks. That helps, but may mean I need another workaround, as continuing on this way will be exceedingly difficult if I have to manage my RAID volumes on 7 Pro on an i9 Mac (seeing as I just purchased 8 for the Studio). To recap short and sweet:
Refresh me on the issue with The "Largest Free Block - 18.4". I do not see it in any of your support files. thanks
Any Seagate 4TB Disk (EXOS 7E8) in SoftRAID 8 on Apple Silicon shows "Largest Free Block: 18.4" with no MB, GB, or TB designation. When going to create a new disk volume for a backup, I tried creating a 2TB volume anyhow and it generated a read error and said the disk should be replaced. Then it alerted me the partition map had been damaged. I had to re-certify the disk for 48-hours. After doing so, I went into SoftRAID 7.5 Pro on my i9. All 4TB Seagate show an accurate "Largest Free Block remaining" field and creating a new volume was done successfully, without issue, alarm, or concern on the i9 MBP. But I don't want to ever create a new disk volume on SR8 until "Largest Free Block" shows something other than "18.4" with a dash. Which will basically make SR8 useless for me and is why I need to find out if that's a software bug or another casualty of Apple. Everyone at OWC has been above-board and the greatest. But I'm now over a month into this.
Since I can't revert to 7 on the new machine I'll try installing SR8 now on the i9. You mentioned you'd heard about the issue on drives before but didn't remember what caused it and would have to think about it:
I have seen the 18.4 issue on drives before, I cannot remember the cause, I will have to think about it.
Its odd that the correct capacity shows on intel, however.
Posted : 22/02/2025 6:33 pm
This is what I see in your support file. What do you see that is different?
(Its most likely a user interface issue)
Posted : 22/02/2025 9:45 pm
Topic starter
This is what I see in your support file. What do you see that is different?
(Its most likely a user interface issue)
Can't view this link. Tried first on Safari, then again on Google Chrome in case it was the browser. "You are not permitted to view this attachment" comes up on the screen when I try.
Posted : 25/02/2025 12:18 am
Topic starter
Another day. Just turned on Flex 8, then turned on Studio. Disks 4 & 7 did not show. Since Disks 3-4 are in a mirror RAID 1, thankfully it was the secondary that did not show this time, so nothing failed-over like before. Yellow menu bar icon and error message that the RAID was "missing one or more secondary disks." Ejected everything that had shown, waited 3 or 4 minutes, took cable out, waited another minute, then plugged back in. After a time-delay (seconds not minutes), the HDDs showed and it automatically began to rebuild the RAID (not sure why as I'd performed no save operations yet). Now all disks are online.
This post was modified 1 year ago by GuitarFlex
Posted : 25/02/2025 2:36 pm
I have seen similar now with Toshiba drives with different model numbers, but not with Seagate. We have this under investigation.
Note: SoftRAID can recover from many failovers if you do not restart:
Scenario: Drive is missing from a mirror.
If you identify the missing drive, pull it out, push it in, so it shows up, it will rebuild, either direction, if it is in the same boot cycle. This will switch the primary to the first connected disk, but fails over automatically.
Posted : 25/02/2025 7:45 pm
Topic starter
Scenario: Drive is missing from a mirror.
If you identify the missing drive, pull it out, push it in, so it shows up, it will rebuild, either direction, if it is in the same boot cycle. This will switch the primary to the first connected disk, but fails over automatically.
Are you saying to try this if the disk doesn't appear upon startup, or only if the disk somehow goes offline after startup? Pulling a disk out and pushing back in is one thing that has not been tried over the past 5 weeks. I can try this next time it happens if you think I should....
Please keep me posted on what develops with Seagate findings. I can't create any new disk volumes until sorting that particular issue out.
Posted : 01/03/2025 2:48 pm
Yes if you pull it out, push it in, it should show up and rebuild.
Posted : 01/03/2025 9:42 pm
Topic starter
I have seen similar now with Toshiba drives with different model numbers, but not with Seagate. We have this under investigation.
What's the general time-frame on things under investigation? I'm not comfortable creating any new disk volumes until that whole 18.4 - thing gets sorted out, since it damaged the partition map the one time I tried. Is that overly cautious?
In the meantime I still have the old computer running 7.5 as a workaround but obviously I'm going to need a better solution as everything is moved over to version 8 on the new computer. I'd really like to get some kind of closure over two months into the year now. Thanks for any advice you have.
Posted : 07/03/2025 1:48 am
I found the same model drive (different capacity, however) and do not see this issue. Can you attach a screen shot of the expanded disk tile for one of these? It may help me see what is different on the one I have here. (Note: the issue did not show up in your support file, so its doubly strange)
Posted : 10/03/2025 12:55 pm
Topic starter
It's when attempting to create a new volume. Any new volume on any 4TB Seagate EXOS disk. In the expanded disk tile, it does not show 18.4 - only when creating a new volume. And the time I "forced" it to a specific size on a blank disk was the time the partition map was damaged. So it's a no-go to try again on any disk containing any volume until figuring this out.
Screen shots attached for the expanded disk tile, and then what happen when clicking "New Volume."
This post was modified 1 year ago by GuitarFlex
Posted : 10/03/2025 10:45 pm
