SoftRAID Quick Start and Install Guide

⌘K
  2. Home
  3. /
  4. SoftRAID Quick Start and ...
  5. /
  6. SoftRAID features you sho...
  7. /
  8. Validating volumes

Validating volumes

Ever wonder if all the sectors of a volume are actually readable? Ever wonder if each disk in a mirror or RAID volume contains exactly the correct information? SoftRAID has the ability to validate volumes. This function uses the RAID engine. It reads every sector of a volume at the device level, bypassing the file system cache. This allows us to ensure that all the sectors on your volume can be read. Since the RAID engine is part of the SoftRAID driver, you can keep validating a volume even if the SoftRAID application is not running.

On mirror and RAID 1+0 volumes, the RAID engine goes one step further. After reading the sectors from each disk for the mirror volume (or mirror pair for RAID 1+0), the RAID engine compares the data from each disk to ensure that they are identical. If the RAID engine finds that a disk does not match the other mirror disks (or other disk in its mirror pair for RAID 1+0), it will write the correct information out to that disk.

On RAID 4 and RAID 5 volumes, the RAID engine computes the parity information for each block of the volume. It then compares the newly computed parity information with the parity information which is stored on the volume’s disks. If the parity information stored on the disks is incorrect, the RAID engine will write the correct parity information for that block out to the disks.

macOS RAID Volume Validate Instructions

  • 1. In SoftRAID, highlight the volume tile that you will Validate.
  • 2. From Volumes menu, select “Validate”.
  • 3. That is all. SoftRAID will alert you when completed.
  • 4. You can quit the SoftRAID application, but validate will not continue/complete if you restart your computer.

    • Note: Validate will complete much faster if you change volume optimization to Workstation or Server. If Optimization is set to Digital Video for example, that pauses the validate until you have not used the computer for at least a minute. You can change volume optimization at any time, from the volumes menu.

    Windows RAID Volume Validate Instructions

  • 1. In SoftRAID, click the RAID Volumes tab and select the SoftRAID volume that you want to Validate.
  • 2. With the volume selected, click on Validate in the right pane or right-click the RAID volume and select Validate from the context menu.
  • 3. The Validate popup window will appear. Choose the validate options you would prefer and click Validate RAID Volume.
  • 4. You can quit the SoftRAID application and Validate will continue. However, the Validate process will stop if you turn off your computer.

    • Validation can be a long process, please leave your computer on while the process is completing – but it can be cancelled at any time by right clicking on the volume and selecting Cancel.

    How can we help?

    On this page

    Do Not Share My Personal Information