SoftRAID



Download the latest version of SoftRAID

If you have already purchased SoftRAID (and have a serial number), download the correct version. If you are not already a SoftRAID customer, or you are trying to decide whether to upgrade/update to the full version of SoftRAID, you can download SoftRAID and try for FREE for 14-days. There are no limitations to the trial, it is fully functional. You can also use the chart below to decide which version is best for you.

SoftRAID 6.0.1 is necessary for macOS 11 Big Sur. You can check compatibility issues here.

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  2. SoftRAID 6 for Mac add compatibility for macOS 11 Big Sur and M1 Macs. If you are still using macOS 10.15 Catalina or earlier you can still use SoftRAID 5. SoftRAID 5 will no longer receive major updates.

SoftRAID (v.5)

SoftRAID

Pros and Cons

Pros
So why should you buy this tool when Apple already gives you free RAID functionality with Disk Utility? The SoftRAID website has quite a list of ways in which SoftRAID is better than Apple's RAID, but is it really worth it?Windows
Here are a few of the more notable pros to using SoftRAID:
  • Lets you easily create and modify RAIDs dynamically - add or remove disks at will.
  • You don't have to reformat to convert to a SoftRAID volume.
  • Lets you mix drive and bus type.
  • Fast read speeds with mirror RAIDs.
  • Much less expensive than a hardware RAID solution.
  • Quickly converts Apple RAIDs and volumes to SoftRAID volumes.
  • Has a background monitoring app that warns you when a RAID has errors - Apple gives you no warnings at all.
  • Includes special I/O optimizations for different purposes (i.e. workstation, server, digital video, etc).
Cons

Softraid.kext


Softraid 6SoftRAID And here are a few reasons why you might not want to use SoftRAID:

Softraid M1

  • SoftRAID volumes will not appear on systems that don't have the driver installed (which means target disk mode would not work if the host system doesn't have the SoftRAID driver - you would have to run SoftRAID on the host system and let it install the driver).
  • You must modify existing boot CDs to work with SoftRAID volumes.
  • SoftRAID disk names don't appear in the 'Bootpicker' (the startup disk interface you see when holding down Option at startup) - minor but annoying. This problem only affects drives that were originally Apple drives, that were converted to SoftRAID drives. I am told that this will be fixed in a future SoftRAID update (3.1.3).
  • Should have email alerts when RAIDs are out of sync. I am told this feature is highly requested, so it will be available in a future update as well.
  • I experienced two kernel panics while setting up RAIDs across different bus types (using a Weibetech FireWire to ATA bridge) - this may have just been a fluke.
  • Probably more likely to have stability issues with Mac OS X (for example, after a major OS upgrade). This is just a theory! SoftRAID support assures me that in the event of problems caused by a major OS upgrade, the issue is resolved with a software update within 30 days.