Press

OWC®; a leading zero emissions Mac and PC technology company and one of the world’s most respected manufacturers of hard drives, SSDs, Mac & PC docking solutions and performance upgrade kits, today announced the release of its new OWC SoftRAID Standard software for macOS and Windows machines along with SoftRAID Pro for macOS.

SoftRAID is the powerful yet easy-to-use software RAID platform that maximizes drive capacity, offers faster performance, and protects against data loss. It’s ideal for voluminous data roles including audio/video production and editing, photography, graphic design, database servers, financial applications, and more. Easy Setup automates disk configuration and makes setup recommendations. Users work worry-free with disks checked and verified before use plus early warnings prevent unexpected disk failure.

Improving A Proven History

While becoming a leading developer of external drives over the past two decades, OWC began offering multi-drive units pre-configured with SoftRAID to offer customers enhanced data storage capabilities. Because SoftRAID proved to offer many of the same attributes our customers expect from our hardware, OWC acquired SoftRAID in 2014 so hardware and software teams could work together daily to create the easiest to use, most fully featured software RAID package available.

The Security of Advanced Monitoring

Getting work done fast while keeping your data safe is paramount. When it comes to protection, SoftRAID was designed to keep you working worry-free. SoftRAID checks and verifies new disks for errors before use, warns you when a disk is about to fail, and even keeps you working if you lose a drive. All these advanced monitoring tools work in the background to ensure you're constantly protected from a catastrophic, project-killing data loss.

Unchain Hardware RAID Limitations

SoftRAID unshackles you from expensive hardware RAID technology that’s not upgradeable or expandable. With SoftRAID, you can spread volumes over two or more drive enclosures for mind-boggling performance over a single hardware RAID device. Additionally, SoftRAID utilizes your computer’s advanced processing power versus the slow processors found in most hardware RAID enclosures. The result is a fast and flexible RAID array that doesn’t impact your computer system or applications.

Perhaps the biggest advantage of SoftRAID over a hardware RAID is that you’re not locked into specific hardware in order to access your data. With SoftRAID, you can replace a bad enclosure or upgrade, and the drives can be moved to that enclosure where you can access your data without skipping a beat. In contrast, if a hardware RAID system fails and it’s out of production or supported anymore, all the data could be lost.

Highlights

• Flexible: create RAID 0, 1 volumes with SoftRAID Standard (Windows and Mac)
• Advanced: create RAID 0, 1, 4, 5, 6, 6+, 1+0 (10) volumes and get email notifications for drive and RAID volume health with SoftRAID Pro (Mac only)
• Verified: volume validation ensures sectors can be read, parity is correct, and volume failure is minimized
• Certified: drives are checked before use to ensure they are safe for data storage
• Vigilant: early warning prediction helps protect against unexpected drive failure
• Cross-platform ready: Built-in MacDrive technology lets you exchange SoftRAID arrays between Windows and macOS computers
• Outperforms: up to 86% faster than AppleRAID
• Thorough: full TRIM support improves internal and external SSD performance in all RAID levels
• Risk-free: 30-day free trial of fully functional application

SoftRAID Standard & SoftRAID Pro

With SoftRAID Standard, Mac and PC users can create super-fast RAID 0 sets or ultra-secure RAID 1 sets, certify new disks before use, receive warnings when a disk is about to fail, and restore data quickly with fast rebuilding.

SoftRAID Pro gives macOS users all the features found in SoftRAID Standard, plus five advanced RAID levels - RAID 4, 5, 6, 6+, 1+0 (10) - to offer even more protection and data security options. Plus receive real-time email notification of disk errors so users can take immediate action to protect their data.

The Cross-Platform Workflow Consolidator

Sharing data between Macs and PCs has never been easier. Built with MacDrive technology (an OWC software technology), SoftRAID allows users to create, read, and write HFS+ RAID sets on both macOS and Windows computers so you’ll never have to worry about disk formats again.

30-Day Risk-Free Trial

Sudden disk failure can cost time, money, and quite possibly your business. Eliminate that risk by trying SoftRAID completely free for 30 days and see firsthand how it can protect mission critical data. Fully functional with no features disabled, this SoftRAID trial provides all the great disk checking, monitoring and easy volume creation attributes that made SoftRAID the most popular RAID setup and management app for years.

Pricing

After the 30-day free trial period, SoftRAID Standard will be available for $49.99 MSRP the end of January and SoftRAID Pro will be available in the spring of 2020 for $179.99.