OWC SoftRAID 9 adds RAID 6 and RAID 6+ protection designed to keep an array accessible after two drives fail, but the new modes require macOS 27. SoftRAID 9 is available now for Mac and Windows. Existing Premium subscribers receive the upgrade at no additional cost, and current SoftRAID volumes won't need to be reformatted.

The release expands SoftRAID's fault-tolerance options while adding access to encrypted APFS RAID volumes on Windows. RAID 6 and RAID 6+ are the biggest additions, with both designed to survive two simultaneous drive failures. The features come with tighter requirements than SoftRAID's previous RAID modes. Creating and managing RAID 6 or RAID 6+ requires macOS 27 and a SoftRAID Premium subscription.

RAID 6 stores two sets of parity information across an array, allowing it to tolerate the failure of up to two drives. SoftRAID requires at least 4 drives to create one of these volumes. RAID 6+ uses dedicated parity drives instead of distributing parity writes across every member of the array. OWC positions RAID 6+ for SSD arrays and other high-throughput workloads. OWC hasn't published comparative benchmarks, however, so the claimed advantage remains unproven.

SoftRAID 9 for Windows adds support for encrypted APFS RAID volumes through its built-in Mac Drive technology. Snapdragon-based PCs can't run SoftRAID. OWC also lists RAID 6 and RAID 6+ among the additions in its Windows release notes, but the company's product documentation says both modes can only be created and managed on macOS 27.