SoftRAID: Five RAID levels with amazing speeds
Create RAID Levels: 0 (stripes), 1 (mirrors), 4, 5 and 1+0
Access data at maximum speeds:
Greater speeds possible with more disks—see speed chart
Plus with SoftRAID you can:
- Keep working if a disk fails
- Boot your computer from a SoftRAID volume
- Check new disks before use
- Get early warnings about disk problems
- Stop worrying about disk failure
Keep working if a disk fails Boot your computer from a SoftRAID volume Check new disks before use Get early warnings about disk problems Stop worrying about disk failure
SoftRAID: your best insurance against disk failure!
Any disk can fail suddenly.
The more disks you have, and the longer you have them, the more likely you are to experience disk failure. Why gamble with your data?
Use SoftRAID and get advance warning of a failing disk
All disks fail—good ones at about 3% a year, bad ones at 25% a year, and really bad ones at 33%*—but with SoftRAID, disk failure doesn't mean catastophe.
SoftRAID's unique RAID features not only alert you to impending disk failure, keep your files safe and provide fast data access, but, with RAID levels 1, 4, 5 and 1+0, you can carry on working right through disk failure, so you don't loose your files, or miss your deadline! SoftRAID helps you work fast, save your data and make your deadline.
If you're a video or photo editor, choose SoftRAID RAID 0 and achieve incredible speeds for editing scratch work.
Any disk can fail suddenly.
The more disks you have, and the longer you have them, the more likely you are to experience disk failure. Why gamble with your data?
Use SoftRAID and get advance warning of a failing disk
Why RAID?
If a truck tire blows, the result can be catastrophic—unless the truck has double tires.
With a double-tired truck, the load is spread, so if a tire fails, the truck stays safe. RAID applies the same principle to your disk drives.
A SoftRAID RAID volume spreads your files across two or more disk drives. Not only does this speed up data access, but if one disk fails, your data is safe on the remaining disk(s)! And disk drives do fail…
For protection against disk failure you need RAID 1 or above. RAID 0 offers no protection
Why RAID?
With a double-tired truck, the load is spread, so if a tire fails, the truck stays safe.
RAID applies the same principle to your disk drives.
A SoftRAID RAID volume protects you against disk failure, by spreading your files across two or more disk drives. Not only does this speed up data access, but if one disk fails, your data is safe on the remaining disk(s)!* And disk drives do fail…*
For protection against disk failure you need RAID 1 or above. RAID 0 offers no protection (but does offer greater speed).
SoftRAID protects your valuable data in 3 different ways:
1. SoftRAID checks new disks before you use them.
New disk? SoftRAID's certify feature will tell you if your disk is bad, before you save precious data to it—protecting you against using a disk that is faulty, or about to fail.
SoftRAID includes a powerful Certify Disk feature. When you Certify a disk, you write, then read, every sector of the disk - more than once. This is the type of testing which should be done on each disk at the factory - but it isn't.
2. SoftRAID warns you if a disk is about to fail.
SoftRAID monitor is always watching your disks, and will tell you if a disk is becoming unreliable and when it is predicted to fail. Wouldn't you love advanced warning of a disk failure, so you can plan for a replacement?
When you use SoftRAID, the SoftRAID Monitor keep track of which disks are experiencing errors and logs when those errors occur. This makes it easy to determine which disk is causing you problems.
SoftRAID also looks for wear patterns which indicate that a disk is becoming unreliable. When it sees a disk is becoming less reliable, it warns you.
In our labs, over 50% of the disks that fail are marked as unreliable by the SoftRAID Monitor at least 10 days before they fail completely. Wouldn't you love advanced warning of a disk failure, so you can plan for a replacement?
3. Keep working after a disk fails.
If you use a SoftRAID mirror (RAID 1), RAID 4, RAID 5 or RAID 1+0 volume, your work is protected against disk failure. Even if one of your disks fails, you can keep right on working. None of your files will be lost. How great is that?
If one disk fails, the other ones still have all the data for your volume.
Safety, Speed or the Best of Both?
SoftRAID offers five different RAID volume levels to store your data, depending on whether your emphasis is on the safety of your data, the speed of accessing that data, or the best of both.
Priority: Data Safety
RAID levels 4, 5, 1+0 and 1 provide the greatest protection from disk or hardware failure and can be used as part of a backup strategy to protect your business from theft, fire, flooding and other calamities.
SAFE → RAID 4 & 5
SAFER → RAID 1+0
SAFEST → RAID 1
Add disks and enclosures to increase data safety…
SAFE:
SoftRAID RAID 4 & 5 Volumes
Protection
from:
DISK FAILURE
SoftRAID RAID 5 volumes protect you from disk failure. If a disk in a SoftRAID RAID 5 volume fails, you can keep using the volume normally.
Click here for more information on how RAID 4 & 5 volumes work
SAFER:
SoftRAID RAID 1+0 Volumes:
Protection
from:
DISK FAILURE
POWER SUPPLY FAILURE
ENCLOSURE FAILURE
SoftRAID RAID 1+0 volumes offer greater protection than RAID 5 volumes. A SoftRAID RAID 1+0 volume with disks in two enclosures protects you from disk failure and power supply, enclosure or cable failures.
Click here for more information on how RAID 1+0 volumes work
SAFEST:
SoftRAID Mirror (RAID 1) Volumes:
Protection
from:
DISK FAILURE
POWER SUPPLY FAILURE
ENCLOSURE FAILURE
THEFT OR FIRE
SoftRAID Mirror (RAID 1) volumes provide the greatest level of protection. A 3 disk mirror will continue to work even if 2 of the disks fail. If the disks are in different enclosures, your volume is also protected from power supply, enclosure or cable failures.
Click here for more information on how RAID 1 mirror volumes work
Backing Up Off-Site with Mirror Volumes
Mirror disks can also be part of an off-site backup strategy. One or more of the mirror disks can be stored off site and brought in every week, on rotation. When the off-site disk is connected to the mirror volume, it will rebuild quickly using SoftRAID's Fast Mirror Rebuild technology. At the end of the rebuild, the disk can then be stored off site again. How else can you easily maintain an off-site backup of a multi-terabyte volume?
Priority: Data Access Speed
How fast do you want to access your data? Fast? Faster? Fastest? RAID levels 1+0, 4, 5 and 0 give you the fastest data access. Use up to 16 disks in a single volume for increased speed; spread volumes over two or more enclosures for incredible performance. You can't get this level of flexibility and performance from hardware RAID.
FAST → RAID 1+0
FASTER → RAID 4 & 5
FASTEST → RAID 0
Add disks and enclosures to increase speed…
FAST:
SoftRAID RAID 1+0 Volumes:
4 Disks*
Read: 536 MB/sec
Write: 342 MB/sec
8 Disks*
Read: 904 MB/sec
Write: 629 MB/sec
4 SSDs*
Read: 1,466 MB/sec
Write: 686 MB/sec
8 SSDs*
Read: 2,338 MB/sec
Write: 1,270 MB/sec
While not quite as fast, SoftRAID RAID 1+0 volumes do offer greater protection than RAID 5 volumes. A SoftRAID RAID 1+0 volume with disks in two enclosures protects you from disk failure and power supply, enclosure or cable failures.
Click here for more information on how RAID 1+0 volumes work
FASTER:
SoftRAID RAID 4
Volumes:
4 Disks*
Read: 532 MB/sec
Write: 520 MB/sec
8 Disks*
Read: 1189 MB/sec
Write: 1144 MB/sec
4 SSDs*
Read: 1,150 MB/sec
Write: 945 MB/sec
8 SSDs*
Read: 2,255 MB/sec
Write: 1,556 MB/sec
SoftRAID RAID 5
Volumes:
4 Disks*
Read: 534 MB/sec
Write: 526 MB/sec
8 Disks*
Read: 1,220 MB/sec
Write: 1,158 MB/sec
4 SSDs*
Read: 1,038 MB/sec
Write: 947 MB/sec
8 SSDs*
Read: 2,129 MB/sec
Write: 1,564 MB/sec
SoftRAID RAID 4 and RAID 5 volumes are faster than RAID 1+0 volumes. They are almost as fast as stripe (RAID 0) volumes and have the advantage of protecting you from disk failure. When one of the disks fails in a RAID 4 or RAID 5 volume, you can still keep reading and writing files on that volume, without interruption.
RAID 4 and RAID 5 are ideal for reading and writing large files, particularly RAID 4 which is up to 20% faster when using SSDs. They are also good for reading small files which are frequently accessed. They are not a good choice if you need to write a lot of small files as fast as possible - RAID 1+0 is better for this.
Click here for more information on how RAID 4 & 5 volumes work
FASTEST:
SoftRAID Stripe (RAID 0) Volumes:
4 Disks*
Read: 696 MB/sec
Write: 688 MB/sec
8 Disks*
Read: 1,397 MB/sec
Write: 1,379 MB/sec
4 SSDs*
Read: 1,524 MB/sec
Write: 1,380 MB/sec
8 SSDs*
Read: 2,438 MB/sec
Write: 2,569 MB/sec
Stripe (RAID 0) volumes give you the fastest possible read and write performance but have no protection from disk failure. If a disk fails in a stripe volume, you will lose all the files on that volume.
Click here for more information on how RAID 0 stripe volumes work
*The actual performance you measure may be different due to changes in hardware, software, firmware, operating environment or other factors.
WANT TO GO EVEN FASTER?
For even more performance just add more disks.
Create a volume over two or more disks. Unlike hardware RAID, a SoftRAID volume can be spread over two or more disks, so you can use the fastest part of each disk (the first 25%-30%) for data you need to access quickly. Slower sections of the disk can be used to create other volumes, where speed isn't such an issue.
Increase your volume's connection speed. Not only can your SoftRAID volume be spread over several disks but you can put those disks in different enclosures to maximise connection speed. If you put half your volume's disks in one Thunderbolt enclosure and the other half in a second enclosure connected to a different Thunderbolt port, you'll be creating a volume which uses the bandwidth of two Thunderbolt connections, so it goes faster than a volume connected to a single Thunderbolt cable. That's just not possible with hardware RAID.
How we measured performance
The read and write performance displayed above was measured using AJA System Test running on a 2013 MacPro with a 3.5 GHz six core processor and 16 GB of RAM. For HDD tests, the Mac was connected to 1 (for "4 Disks") or 2 (for "8 Disks") OWC ThunderBay 4 enclosures containing Toshiba 3 TB hard disks. For SSD tests, the Mac was connected to 1 (for "4 SSDs") or 2 (for "8 SSDs") OWC ThunderBay mini enclosures containing 960 GB OWC Mercury Extreme Pro solid state disks. All RAID 0 and RAID 1+0 volumes were tested with a stripe unit size of 64 KB.
Want Both Speed and Safety?
If you’re happy to compromise a little on each, you can have a system that is both fast and safe. RAID levels 1+0, 4 and 5 will give you a good balance of safety and speed.
RAID 1+0 → SAFER & FAST
RAID 4 & 5 → FASTER & SAFE
SAFER & FAST: SoftRAID RAID 1+0 Volumes:
SoftRAID RAID 1+0 volumes give you more safety protection than RAID 5 or RAID 4 volumes. A SoftRAID RAID 1+0 volume with disks in two enclosures protects you from disk failure and power supply, enclosure or cable failures.
SoftRAID RAID 1+0 volumes are also fast. To increase performance, you can use up to 16 disks—all while maintaining the safety that SoftRAID RAID 1+0 volumes offer. Adding disks like this just isn't possible with hardware RAID. Click here for more information on how RAID 1+0 works.
FASTER & SAFE: SoftRAID RAID 5 and RAID 5 Volumes:
SoftRAID RAID 4 & RAID 5 volumes are faster than RAID 1+0 volumes and almost as fast as stripe (RAID 0) volumes (the fastest SoftRAID solution). Unlike RAID 0, they'll also protect you from disk failure. If a disk in a SoftRAID RAID 4 or RAID 5 volume fails, you can keep using the volume normally.
Choose RAID 4 if you are using SSDs for your volume.
SoftRAID RAID 5 volumes are ideal for reading and writing large files. They are also good for small files which are frequently read but infrequently written. Click here for more information on how RAID 5 and RAID 4 work.
Expand the 'Priority: Data Safety' section above to see performance details for SoftRAID RAID 5 and 1+0 Volumes. For speed comparisons, click here
Find the set up that's right for you.
Expand the sections above to learn about the different levels of protection and how to use different set ups for even more flexibility and performance. You can also read in more detail about the different RAID levels here
On the RAID LEVELS page, you'll also find recommendations for which set up to use based on what you are using your storage for - whether you're a video editor, photographer, architect, designer, musician, or a business/individual with a lot of crucially important data.
SoftRAID beats out hardware RAID solutions.
You've probably heard or read about the advantages of a hardware RAID set-up. Now find out how SoftRAID beats out most hardware RAID solutions and can save you hundreds of $$$...
SAFETY:
With software RAID your data can be split across different enclosures for complete redundancy - one enclosure can completely stop working and your data is still ok. With hardware RAID, if the enclosure fails, you can lose all your data. With cheaper hardware RAID you can also lose data if there’s a power outage.
SPEED:
Think hardware raid is always faster? SoftRAID provides super fast read and write speeds which can match more expensive hardware RAID solutions. To maximize read/write speeds, SoftRAID harnesses the power of your computer’s powerful CPU, but only for mere microseconds at a time so other running applications aren’t impacted. Even if your hardware RAID box controller chip was top of the line when you bought it, it can quickly become out of date as chip speeds improve, and you won’t be able to swap it out for a new one; with software RAID you can easily take advantage of improvements in chip technology by moving your RAID array to a new computer with a newer and faster CPU.
COST:
Many people wrongly view software RAID as a cheap solution that’s not powerful, even though it can compete on speed and outperform on safety when compared with hardware RAID.
In fact, expensive hardware RAID solutions are not automatically superior (especially since the chip in even fairly low end laptops is usually more powerful as the chip in an expensive hardware RAID controller). A statistic that may well surprise you is that a majority of companies who spend over $10,000 on RAID solutions choose software RAID because of its flexibility and value. Those companies have already shown where their confidence lies.
Click here to read more about the benefits of using software RAID compared to hardware RAID
Your disks are constantly checked
The SoftRAID Monitor is always watching your disks and volumes
The SoftRAID Monitor (blue/orange circle in image below) is always running and visible in the menu bar whenever you have SoftRAID Lite installed. The SoftRAID monitor constantly checks your disks for errors and alerts you to potentially failing disks, giving you plenty of time to back up data and replace the disk.
You can also use the SoftRAID Monitor to quickly check the SoftRAID log or launch the SoftRAID application.
Download SoftRAID or SoftRAID Lite now for a FREE TRIAL!
Download SoftRAID now and try it for free for 30 days. You can create new volumes with any RAID level SoftRAID supports, or convert your existing AppleRAID stripe (RAID 0) or mirror (RAID 1) volumes.
If, after 30 days, you decide not to use SoftRAID, you can convert your stripe (RAID 0) and mirror (RAID 1) volumes to AppleRAID (or back to AppleRAID if that's what you started with) and not lose any of your files. However you will lose all of SoftRAID's great features and, if you had any other RAID level, you will lose any disk protection you had.
Outstanding RAID software for Mac OS since 1996
We have been creating RAID software for Mac OS since 1996. We started on Mac OS 7. In fact, our team wrote the original version of AppleRAID.
We shipped the first version of SoftRAID for Mac OS X over 15 years ago and have been actively developing SoftRAID and supporting Mac OS X ever since. Our current version includes many features you won’t find on any other RAID product.
Version 1.0
1994
Version 2.0
1996
Version 3.0
2003
Version 4.0
2010
Version 5.0
2014
Version 5.5
2016
Don't just take our word for it. Read what our customers have said about SoftRAID version 5 and why it's the best Mac OS software RAID solution around.
* After more than 500 hours testing three popular disk brands, SoftRAID staff found one brand and model had a 33% failure rate—though most worked fine. Their findings showed bad disks failing at between 25%–33% a year, and even 'good' disks failing at a rate of about 3% a year. Even SSDs (Solid State Disks) fail at about the same rate. Your disk could be one that fails at a 3% rate, a 25% rate, or even higher; you won't know till it happens.
Even if you have one of the safer disks, the more you have, and the longer you have them, increases your risk of failure to as much as 25%. This is why you should only use a RAID 0 volume as part of a larger backup system. If all your data is only on a RAID 0 volume, it's unprotected; if your disk fails, you could lose it all. top…