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I have just bought an OWC 32TB HDD Mercury Elite Pro Quad RAID 4-Drive Storage Solution with USB3.1 Gen2 Chipset with USB-C Port and SoftRaid XT - 32TB, from Mega Mac in the UK. Serial Number:OWBE0000040627
I can't seem to do much with it. When I try to create a new volume I get this message:
Error creating new volume
You cannot create a new SoftRAID volume. There are no SoftRAID disks available which have at least 10 MB of free space on them. Please select the disk you wish to use, select "Initialize" from the "Disk" menu and then create a new volume.
And when I try to do that and initialise I get this message:
Error initializing disk
You cannot initialize this disk because it contains a volume which has its safeguard enabled. Please disable the safeguard on all the volumes on this disk by selecting the volumes and then using the "Disable Safeguard" menu item in the "Volume" menu. You will then be able to initialize this disk.
And when I try to select a disk and go to the Volume menu, the only option is New... Everything is greyed out. And even in the greyed out secion the only option is Enable safeguard.
I have asked support but they take days to respond. Can someone please help?
Posted : 18/01/2025 7:13 am
Why do you think it takes days for support to reply? I see your case, it was just created today. I will close that case, but you can respond and open if again, but this should answer your query.
This unit comes pre-copnfigured with a RAID 5 volume, that should already be mounted. So there is nothing you need to do.
If you want to change the RAID level, then do this:
Quit and relaunch SoftRAID application.
Select the volume tile for your volume.
Pull down the volumes menu and select disable safeguard. that is all you were missing. Now you can delete the volume and create a new one if you want.
Safeguard prevents users from accidentally deleting their volumes. This used to happen a lot, until we added this about 20 years ago. since then, almost no one accidentally deletes volumes, as it requires a specific step in order to be able to do that.
Posted : 18/01/2025 1:06 pm
Topic starter
Thank you!
I just received an email that it’d take 2-3 days for a response.
I realised my mistake and sent another email that it was sorted. Was also going to delete this as it’s just embarrassing now :) but couldn’t figure out how.
Thank you for your help!
Posted : 18/01/2025 2:06 pm
Its no problem. I think the official email says it will take state day or two, for "legal" reasons and so we can beat expectations.
generally most support queries, at least for SoftRAID, are answered in a few hours, often less.
Posted : 18/01/2025 2:39 pm
Topic starter
I now have another question. I resized the main volume from 24TB to 14TB as I'd like to keep one of the four 8TB disks for Time machine. I also removed the fourth disk from the main volume so there are three remaining.
All the files on there seem fine but in the SoftRAID interface it says the main volume is degraded - missing disk. Will this correct itself to the new size or do I need to do something to the main volume?
Sorry, new to this.
Posted : 21/01/2025 11:08 am
SoftRAID is correctly reporting. You created a 4 drive RAID volume, then "removed" a disk. SO it is operating without redundancy currently.
We do not support removing/adding drives from a RAID 4/5/10 volume to increase/decrease capacity.
that requires rearranging all data on the drives. If you only want a 3 drive RAID 5 volume going forward, you will need to backup/delete/restore, sorry.
Posted : 21/01/2025 1:48 pm
Topic starter
Ah that's ok. I'm transferring all data from the main volume to the partition to create a new main volume.
Thank you
Posted : 21/01/2025 1:59 pm
