Use the interactive image of the SoftRAID Application UI below to see how you can test disks, create volumes and investigate problems with the SoftRAID application. Each tile in the Application UI represents a separate disk or volume, making it really easy to create and maintain RAID volumes.1
Select the yellow boxes to expand the sections below and see all the great functionality of the SoftRAID Application interface.
Disk tiles show you whether a disk is working correctly or needs to be replaced. You can also click on a disk tile to see which volumes use that disk.
SoftRAID displays a separate tile for each disk connected to your Mac.
It will display tiles for:
A disk tile shows you the size and type of a disk attached to your Mac. You can click on the disclosure triangle to see more information about a disk and whether you need to replace it.
*SMART is a monitoring system in disk drives that SoftRAID Monitor uses to assess drive reliability and anticipate drive failures.
Volume tiles show you the size and RAID level of each volume. They also show you whether a volume is degraded, i.e no longer protected from a failing disk. You can click on a volume tile to see which disks it uses.
SoftRAID displays a tile for all volumes which your Mac can access without using a network. A RAID volume uses parts of two or more disks to store your files.
A volume tile shows you information about a volume. You can click on the disclosure triangle to see more information about a volume and whether it has encountered any errors.
You can verify your disks with SoftRAID to make sure all sectors are readable.
You can also certify a disk to make sure it is completely reliable.
(Note: while verifying leaves your data intact, certifying wipes all the data from your disk; its purpose is to check the disk before you intend to use it.)
For more information about verifying and certifying disks, see the page on testing disks.
Nervous about the integrity of your data? Want to make sure all of the data on a volume can still be read? You can validate your SoftRAID volumes at any time, just to be sure.
When you validate a volume, the following happens:
Validating a volume is not required, but it's a good safety measure. You can think of it like checking the pressure on your spare tire; if you get a flat you have the peace of mind that your spare is ready to go. Validation gives you the peace of mind that if any problem occurs, all the parity and mirror data is correct and up-to-date.
To find out more about validating SoftRAID volumes, click here
SoftRAID has full support for all SSDs (Solid State Disks), even non-Apple SSDs. SoftRAID uses the TRIM command to improve the performance of all volumes on SSDs. Unlike most other RAID solutions, SoftRAID supports TRIM on all RAID levels.
TRIM is a feature of most SSDs which improves read and write performance and helps extend the life of the memory chips in an SSD.
The SoftRAID Monitor also constantly monitors SSDs to make sure their memory chips are not worn out. When they have less than 10% of their life remaining, the SoftRAID Monitor will warn you.2,3
1. RAID 4, 5 and 1+0 volumes are not supported in SoftRAID Lite. Back...
2. These features require disks which support SMART. They are not available on disks connected via USB or FireWire and may not be available if a disk is connected via some third party interface cards.