If the disk has been initialized with Apple Disk Utility or SoftRAID 2.x and you want to keep the data intact and maintain the volumes, you use the Convert to SoftRAID 3 command under the Disk menu. The converted volume will only be available with SoftRAID 3 running on Mac OS X. If you are converting your startup volume, please read Part 4 of this Guide.

Before using the Convert to SoftRAID 3 command, it is highly recommended that you backup the data you will be converting.

Converting Mirror Volumes:

1. Back up all the volumes on the disks you are about to convert.


2. Select the Preferences item under the SoftRAID menu.


3. Go to the Driver tab and change the "Mirror Volume Secondary disk time-out" preference to 2 minutes. Since the disks of Apple's RAID and SoftRAID 2.x volumes are converted one-at-a-time, and the SoftRAID driver looks for those disks to appear in a certain amount of time, (See Mirror Essentials in the Manual for more details), this procedure allows you enough time to convert the entire volume. It is also important not to use the volume until all of the disks in that volume are converted.


4. Make sure that Apple Disk Utility is not running.


5. Highlight all the disks in the Disk column that are in the Volume. If you are not sure which disks to convert, highlight the Apple RAID volume in the Volume column and the pipes will show you which disks are part of that volume.


6. Select the menu item Convert to SoftRAID 3 under the Disk menu.
   The following dialog box appears:
   
   
   


7. Select the Convert button. You may be asked for your password before SoftRAID will complete the operation. SoftRAID will show a new volume in the Volume column and a progress indicator. You will need to convert all of the disks before this indicator disappears. If you are not sure which disks to convert, highlight the Apple RAID volume in the Volume column and the pipes will show you which disks are still part of that volume.


8. When all of the disks have been converted, the Apple volume icon will disappear and you will be able to use your new SoftRAID Mirror volume.
   

Note: SoftRAID 3 will not convert an Apple's RAID Mirror volume which has failed. To fix the failed state you must correct it in Apple's RAID. You can either rebuild the disks in Apple's RAID or disconnect the failed disk and convert just the working disk. To detect which disk has failed, you can try copying a large file to or from the volume and seeing which disk is blinking (working) and which disk isn't(failed).




Converting Stripe Volumes:

1. Back up all the volumes on the disks you are about to convert.


2. Make sure that Apple Disk Utility is not running.


3. Highlight the disks you wish to convert in the Disk column of the Application window. If you are not sure which disks to convert, highlight the Apple RAID volume in the Volume column and the pipes will show you which disks are still part of that volume.


4. Select the menu item Convert to SoftRAID 3 under the Disk menu.
   The following dialog box appears:
   
   
   

When all of the disks have been converted, the Apple volume icon will disappear and you will be able to use your new SoftRAID Mirror volume.

After converting or initializing drives

On reboot Mac OS X may not recognize SoftRAID disks because they were not initialized with Apple Disk Utility. The system may put up a dialog informing you of this. If this appears, select the Ignore button.