OWC has released SoftRAID 9 for macOS and Windows with RAID 6 and RAID 6+ protection. Both modes keep a volume accessible after any two drive failures, reducing the risk window that appears when a large array is rebuilding after its first failure.
RAID 6 distributes parity across the array, while RAID 6+ uses dedicated parity drives. OWC positions the latter for SSD arrays where concentrating parity writes can avoid distributing that workload across every member disk. RAID 6 and 6+ require macOS 27.
The release also adds encrypted APFS support on Windows and continues cross-platform access to APFS and HFS+ through bundled MacDrive technology. SoftRAID Monitor now extends health and SMART tracking across more USB, SSD and NVMe devices, including wear and temperature information.
Dual-drive protection does not replace backup, and performance will vary with controller, media and layout. Facilities should benchmark degraded-mode playback, rebuild time, cross-platform write behaviour and recovery from enclosure or host failure before migrating active projects.
