RENAUD S  Very reliable and useful software.

I heard of it reading the eBook "Take Control of Easy Backups in Leopard", which I recommand :

http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/leopard-easy-backup.html

See what Joe Kissell says :

"That said, you can have your cake and eat it too (for a price). If

you use SoftRAID (http://www.softraid.com/, $129), you can create

a RAID in which your internal disk is mirrored onto two or more

external drives at once. You can then periodically rotate one of the

drives off-site, where it will function as a stand-alone duplicate of

your disk at an earlier state. When you plug it back into your Mac, it

will automatically synchronize with the remaining drives in the RAID.

The beauty of this approach is that you never have to set up, schedule,

or run backup software to make duplicates—it happens automatically.

This scheme can even be expanded to include archives. Using

SoftRAID, it is possible (though a bit awkward) to partition an

external drive so that one partition is used along with your internal

drive to form a mirrored RAID while another, non-RAID partition

on the external holds archives. Set up two drives this way and you’re

in business—as close to a painless backup system as I can imagine."

So, I use it :

- to prevent a disk failure,

- in my backup strategy, in order to have a mirror of all my important disks in both my home and my office. Each of these disks is connected to a mirror disk in each place : either I rotate the mirror or I move the main disk.

Add an overnight daily incremental backup, and you get a rock solid backup strategy.

Most of all, Mark James has always been incredibly reactive and helpful : for example, I had an issue today (jan. 1st !!) with a corrupted syslog file, I got an answer from him within a few minutes.

Renaud, Nice, France  
(Version 3.6.7)

DONMONTALVO  There is no better software RAID solution for Mac than SoftRAID. It used to be bundled with ASIP server, then later when OSX was released, the driver was bundled (minus the application). Apple would be doing everyone a favor by bundling SoftRAID with their Xserve boxes. Sure, they offer hardware RAID for money - but most small shops only want software RAID. Sorry, but Diskutil software RAID is not in the same league as SoftRAID. We use it for critical workstations (RAID-1, email notification if a drive fails, user is none the wiser). Great stuff.

Don Montalvo, NYC  
(Version 3.6.7)

BOBP63  SoftRaid is far superior to the RAID functionality offered within OS X’s own Disk Utility program. I had resigned myself to purchasing hardware RAID prior to trying SoftRaid; now I have the functionality I was seeking without the worry of proprietary hardware solutions.

I would have rated SoftRaid higher in the value category had it offered a bit more in the way of RAID monitoring options, i.e. email error notification and a monitoring Widget. In the big scheme of things these are minor issues but considering the price of the application they certainly would have been appreciated.   
(Version 3.6.6)

HOONDI  Well now,

May I suggest you guys dump your code and keep your GUI for ZFS, because after years of requesting that you implement a software RAID5 capability, it seems you have now missed the boat.

It's very disappointing to lose Mac developers, but once ZFS is here (currently freely available to anyone via an ADC account) your days seem extremely numbered.

Having tested ZFS, even in it's current state, it can do everything that SoftRAID currently does, and so so much more.

Unfortunately, as an owner of SoftRAID, the best use I'll get from your software will be the media acting as a drink coaster.  
(Version 3.6.6)

SVRROOT  still a perfekt type of software...

svrroot  
(Version 3.6.4)

HIHIHOHO  purchased the software yesterday evening, unfortunately had problems with softraid DVD. mark did everything possible to help me out with this little problem - great support and now it works fine.

5 stars!

iPoe  
(Version 3.6)

DONMONTALVO  there appears to be an issue with 3.5.1 where if you try to "add second drive", you get a fast progress bar followed by "mirror is rebuilt" dialog followed by "missing secondary drive".

reverted to 3.3 and emailed softraid to see what's up.

don

don montalvo, nyc

curmudgeon at large  
(Version 3.5.1)

ANONYMOUS  Hmm, they're working on "user interface elements" rather than value added features like RAID 5. I trust you prove me wrong soon.  
(Version 3.2.1)

ANONYMOUS  This is a great application. RAID 1 offers a bootable backup in real time through mirroring. The application is much more versatile than Apple's RAID. I use it mirroring an internal 250 GB HD in my duo G5 2 GHZ with an external 250 GB HD using firewire 800. Works flawlessly. Particularly impressive is the automatic rebuilding of the mirror in the background after re connecting the mirror.

Apple should include this application in its OS and it would make it an unbeatable value proposition for the home and enterprise users. Yes, the application costs $ 129, perhaps a bit steep, but as users we should realise the cost and value of designing and developing world-class software. I have asked questions to the developers and they responded within hours. Highly recommended.  
(Version 3.1.2)

ASTRAPOINT  I bought SoftRAID 3.1 because I wanted the capability to mirror my startup disk. I had previously used Apple MacOS X RAID utility, but it didn't work well for me.

SoftRAID 3.1 had several serious bugs, and I was about to throw in the towel on it. Luckily I hung in there, and v3.1.1 was released. It works great now. No problems.  
(Version 3.1.1)