OWC Thunderbolt 5 Express 4M2 Ultra

Support Manual

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Introduction

1.1 System Requirements

Operating System & Hardware:

Works with any Thunderbolt 5 | Thunderbolt 4 | Thunderbolt 3 (Mac Only) | USB4 equipped:

  • Mac: macOS 14.x or later
    • Thunderbolt 5 requires macOS 15.3.x or later
    • Thunderbolt 3 requires macOS 15.x or later
    • Intel based systems require macOS 15.x or later
  • PC: Windows 11 or later
  • Chromebook: current Chrome OS version recommended
  • iPad Pro: current iPadOS version recommended
  • Linux: current Ubuntu version recommended

    1.2 Package Contents

    • (1) OWC Thunderbolt 5 Express 4M2 Ultra External Enclosure
    • (1) 0.7M (28") Thunderbolt 5 Cable
    • (1) External Power Supply
    • (1) US Power Cable (2-Prong IEC C7)
    • (1) 3 Years of SoftRAID Premium Access (with select solutions
      • (License located on device)

    1.3 Front View

    A. Power Status LED

    • Data Connection = Solid Blue

    1.4 Rear View

    B. LED Power Switch

    • Adjust the LED (On | Off) by inserting a pin to press the switch.
      • Factory default is On.

      C. (2) Thunderbolt 5 Port

      • Utilize the latest Thunderbolt devices and accessories.
      • (Up to 15W power delivery)

        D. (2) OWC ClingOn-ready cable stabilizer mount

        • Affix ClingOn to help prevent accidental cable disconnections (sold separately)
        • NOTE: OWC ClingOn-ready cable stabilizer mount usage limited to (1) non-adjacent Thunderbolt port due to stabilizer width.

        E. DC IN 19V 4A Power Port

        • Connect external power supply to power the device.
        • (AC Input: 100-240V, 50/60Hz 2.5A | DC Output: 21V/8.58A | Wattage: 140W)

        F. Kensington Security slot

        • Attach a Kensington Security lock.

          Getting Started

          2.1 Device Assembly

          • This section describes the process of installing (4) NVMe M.2 2280 | 2242 SSDs into the OWC Thunderbolt 5 Express 4M2 Ultra.

          Opening the Enclosure

          1. Place the OWC Thunderbolt 5 Express 4M2 Ultra on a flat static free surface with the rear facing upwards.

          • Remove the (4) exposed rear panel screws with a phillips screwdriver (included in baggie), and lift away the rear panel.

          2. Slightly angel the (2) side panels outward and lift away from the chassis. This will provide access to the drive bays inside the enclosure

          • NOTE: The underside of the drive bay panel has (4) thermal adhesive strips that cover the installed drives. Lay the drive bay panel down with the adhesive strips facing upwards to avoid obstructions adhering to the sticky strips.
          • NOTE: Usage over time may result in the thermal pad sticking to the drives. When opening the device, carefully release and slowly separate the drive bay panel so the drives do not become damaged from the adhered thermal pads. Warming the device from usage before opening the device can help separate the thermal pads from the drives.

          2280 Form Factor Installation

          • The OWC Thunderbolt 5 Express 4M2 Ultra supports 2280 | 2242 NVMe M.2 SSD form factors and arrives from the factory preconfigured to support 2280 NVMe M.2 SSDs.

          1. Remove the (4) 2280 form factor drive mounting screws (highlighted).

          • There are (2) mounting screws on each side for a total of (4).

          2. Carefully align the drive into the board connection and slide it forwards until fully connected.

          • NOTE: Please do not force the drive into the board connection. Minimal force is required. Remove and realign the drive If resistance is felt.

          3. Press the drive down onto the board and use the removed 2280 form factor drive mounting screw from earlier to secure the drive.

          • NOTE: The drive will rest on a thermal pad. Double width drives may need additional downward pressure applied while securing.

          4. Repeat this an additional time. Flip the enclosure over to reveal the other (2) drive bays. Repeat the drive installation process resulting in (4) installed 2280 NVMe M.2 SSDs.

          2242 Form Factor

          1. Remove the drive mounting screw, and loosen the drive post with a hex socket (not included).

          2. Move and secure the drive post to the 2242 form factor positions (highlighted).

          3. Carefully align the drive into the board connection and slide it forwards until fully connected.

          • NOTE: Please do not force the drive into the board connection. Minimal force is required. Remove and realign the drive If resistance is felt.

          4. Press the drive down onto the board and use the removed 2242 form factor drive mounting screw from earlier to secure the drive.

          • NOTE: The drive will rest on a thermal pad. Double width drives may need additional downward pressure applied while securing.

          5. Repeat this an additional time. Flip the enclosure over to reveal the other (2) drive bays. Repeat the drive installation process resulting in (4) installed 2242 NVMe M.2 SSDs.

          Closing the Enclosure

          1. The drive bay panels have two notches (highlighted). Align and slot the drive bay panels ensuring the notches are in the correct position. They should be towards the top of the enclosure. One notch will fit into the front, while the other will be directed toward the rear.

          • NOTE: The underside of each drive bay panel has (2) thermal adhesive strips that correspond and will cover the installed drives.
          • NOTE: The thermal adhesive strips are covered with a protective film. Remove the protective film before proceeding with closing the enclosure.

          2. Press the angled drive bay panels into the enclosure. Place down the rear panel ensuring the device connections match and slots into the drive bay panel notches.

          3. Secure the drive bay panel using the (4) removed screws form earlier.

          4. Connect the power adapter and the included 0.7M (28") Thunderbolt 5 Cable into the Thunderbolt 5 Host Port and into a compatible computer.

          5. The installed drives are ready to be formatted. OWC recommends creating a RAID volume for best performance.

          • Section 2.2 “RAID Configuration Options” is the next section that will provide instructions on how to format and configure the drives in the OWC Thunderbolt 5 Express 4M2 Ultra.

          2.2 RAID Configuration Options

          OWC SoftRAID RAID Configuration

          • Select OWC Thunderbolt 5 Express 4M2 Ultra devices come bundled with "3 Years of SoftRAID Premium Access". Please visit OWC SoftRAID Product Details for more information regarding SoftRAID and the bundled Premium Access.
            • NOTE: Downloading and installing the latest version of OWC SoftRAID is recommended to experience the best performance from the OWC Thunderbolt 5 Express 4M2 Ultra.
          • SoftRAID will assist with formatting the installed drives and setting up a RAID volume.
            • NOTE: The OWC SoftRAID license is located on the OWC Thunderbolt 5 Express 4M2 Ultra.

          Mac OWC SoftRAID Setup

          Windows OWC SoftRAID Setup

          Mac Software RAID Setup

          1. Open the “Disk Utility” application on your Mac.

          2. Choose “File” and select “RAID Assistant”.

          3. Select a set type:

          • Striped (RAID 0) set: A striped RAID set can speed up access to your data. You can’t create a RAID set on your startup disk; you must first start up your computer from another disk.
          • Mirrored (RAID 1) set: Protect your data against hardware failure with a mirrored RAID set. When you create a mirrored RAID set, your data is written to multiple disks so the information is stored redundantly. You can’t create a RAID set on your startup disk; you must first start up your computer from another disk.
          • Concatenated (JBOD) set: Increase storage space with a concatenated disk set. If you need one large disk, but you have several smaller disks, you can create a concatenated disk set to use as one large disk.

          4. Select the checkboxes of the disks you want to include in the set.

          5. For each disk, click the pop-up menu in the Role column and choose “RAID slice” or “Spare” to designate the disk as a standard member or spare in the set, then click "Next".

          6. Enter a name for the RAID set in the RAID Name field.

          7. Click the Format pop-up menu, then choose a volume format that you want for all the disks in the set. (See File system formats available in Disk Utility.)

          8. Click the “Chunk size” pop-up menu, then choose a disk chunk size that you want used for all the disks.

          • When you create a striped set, chunks of data from the same file are distributed across the drives. Ideally, you want data distributed across drives evenly and at an optimum size so that it can be efficiently accessed.
          • If you want high data throughput from your set, choose a smaller chunk size so that data is spread across the drives and one drive can be accessing data while another is seeking the next chunk.
          • With mirrored disk sets, choose a chunk size that matches the data you’re accessing. For example, when working with video files, your Mac is accessing large chunks of data, whereas when using a database of many small records, your disks may be accessing smaller chunks of information.

          9. If you are creating a mirrored RAID set, select the “Automatically rebuild” checkbox to allow the set to be automatically rebuilt when member disks are reconnected

          10. Click "Create" and then click "Done".

          Device Management

          3.1 LED Indicator Switch

          1. Push the button on the back to change the LED settings.

          3.2 Drive Failure

          • If the OWC Thunderbolt 5 Express 4M2 Ultra was configured as a RAID 0.
            • The data on the array is lost and the disk is no longer usable.
          • If the OWC Thunderbolt 5 Express 4M2 Ultra was configured as a RAID 5.
            • The RAID can continue to be used, but the drive should be replaced immediately.

          3.3 Replacing Drives

          • A failed drive, in a RAID array, must be replaced with an identical drive (model, capacity, firmware).
          • To minimize RAID rebuild time, it is recommended to keep the device connected to the computer (with the computer powered on), and disable any drive sleep settings on the computer for the duration of the rebuild.
          • Complete the drive installation steps in reverse order to remove the failed drive. Refer above to Section 2.2 “Assembly Steps”.

          3.4 OWC Disk Performance

          • As of Windows 10 v. 1809 the default Disk Removal Policy is ‘Quick removal’ instead of ‘Better performance’.
            • NOTE: OWC storage solutions that are experiencing slow read/write speeds should consider checking and changing the Windows disk removal policy. Changing from "Quick removal" to "Better performance" can increase disk performance. OWC offers the application OWC Disk Performance to help change the Disk Removal Policy. Changing from "Quick removal" to "Better performance" can also be changed through OWC SoftRAID or manually through the operating system.
          • Please review the support article Storage Solutions: OWC Disk Performance for additional details.

          3.5 Manually Unmounting Volumes

          To ensure no data is lost during normal use, always eject or unmount the corresponding volume(s) from the operating system before powering off and disconnecting the device. Unmounting options are provided below.

          macOS

          1. Drag the icon for the device you wish to unmount to the trash can; OR
          2. Right-click the device icon on the desktop, then click “Eject”; OR
          3. Highlight the device on your Desktop and press Command-E.

          Windows

          • Windows 10 build 1809 (October 2018) or later:
            • Eject the drive by clicking the ‘Show hidden items’ menu in the Taskbar, then clicking ‘Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media’, and last select the ‘Eject’ option for this volume.
          • Windows 10 build 1803 and earlier:
            • Go to the System Tray (located in the lower right corner of your screen). Click on the “Eject” icon (a small green arrow over a hardware image).
            • A message will appear, detailing the devices that the “Eject” icon controls, i.e., “Safely remove...” Click on this prompt.
            • You will then see a message that says, “Safe to Remove Hardware.” It is now safe to disconnect the device from the computer.

          3.6 Usage Notes

          • To ensure no data is lost during normal use, always eject or unmount the corresponding disk(s) from your operating system before powering off the device.
          • All four drive bays are bootable on macOS. SSDs with 512 byte sectors require macOS 10.13 or later.
          • SoftRAID works with macOS 10.14 or later and Windows 10 or later. SoftRAID is licensed per computer. The SoftRAID serial number will work with both Mac and Windows but can only be active on one computer at a time.
            • Additional seats can be purchased. RAID 4/1+0 (10) are currently Mac only at this time
          • Single drive performance up to 1600MB/s.
          • Intel Mac system users connected over Thunderbolt 3 will experience Write Speeds up to 1500MB/s and Read Speeds up to 2500MB/s
          • The underside of the drive bay panel has (4) thermal adhesive strips that cover the installed drives. Lay the drive bay panel down with the adhesive strips facing upwards to avoid obstructions adhering to the sticky strips.
            • Usage over time may result in the thermal pad sticking to the drives. When opening the device, carefully release and slowly separate the drive bay panel so the drives do not become damaged from the adhered thermal pads. Warming the device from usage before opening the device can help separate the thermal pads from the drives.
          • Each drive bay also has a thermal strip that goes underneath each installed drive. Usage over time may result in the thermal pad sticking to the drive when removed. Carefully take the adhesive strip off the drive and place it back into the drive bay.
          • The OWC Thunderbolt 5 Express 4M2 Ultra has (2) 40mm fans for with variable cooling based on device temperature.
            • < 35°C (FAN OFF)
            • >= 35°C (FAN-PWM 40%)
            • >= 45°C (FAN-PWM 60%)
            • >= 50°C (FAN-PWM 80%)
            • >= 55°C (FAN-PWM 100%)

          Support Resources

          4.1 Troubleshooting

          • If your computer does not recognize the OWC Thunderbolt 5 Express 4M2 Ultra when it is connected:
            • Verify the USB cable is securely connected between the OWC Thunderbolt 5 Express 4M2 Ultra and host system.
              • Connect the OWC Thunderbolt 5 Express 4M2 Ultra and host system with a different Thunderbolt 5 cable.
              • Connect the OWC Thunderbolt 5 Express 4M2 Ultra to a different host system.
          • Windows users experiencing slow read/write speeds should consider checking and changing the Windows disk removal policy.
          • We are very sorry If issues continue to occur. Please know that OWC support is here to help.
            • Contact information for our support can be found in section 4.4 "Contacting Support".
            • Please have your serial number ready which is located on the bottom of the OWC Thunderbolt 5 Express 4M2 Ultra and printed on the original packaging.

          4.2 Online Resources

          Support Articles:

          Downloads:

          Product Pages:

          4.3 About Data Backup

          To ensure your files are protected and to prevent data loss, we strongly suggest that you keep two copies of your data: one copy on your OWC Thunderbolt 5 Express 4M2 Ultra and a second copy on either your internal drive or another storage medium, such as an optical backup, or on another external storage unit. Any data loss or corruption while using the OWC Thunderbolt 5 Express 4M2 Ultra (including with OWC SoftRAID) is the sole responsibility of the user, and under no circumstances may OWC, its parent, partners, affiliates, officers, employees, or agents be held liable for loss of the use of data including compensation of any kind or recovery of the data.

          4.4 Contacting Support

          4.5 About This Manual

          The images and descriptions may vary slightly between this manual and the unit shipped. Functions and features may change depending on the firmware version or driver version, if applicable. Please visit the product web page for the most recent product information. OWC’s Limited Warranty is not transferable and subject to limitations.

          General Use Precautions

          • To avoid damage, do not expose the device to temperatures outside the following ranges:
            • Environmental (Operating)
              • Temperature (ºF): 32º — 104º
              • Temperature (ºC): 0º — 40º
            • Environmental (Non-Operating)
              • Temperature (ºF): -4º — 158º
              • Temperature (ºC): -20º — 70º
          • Always unplug the device from the electrical outlet if there is a risk of lightning or if it will be unused for an extended period-of-time. Otherwise, there is an increased risk of electrical shock, short-circuiting, or fire.
          • Protect your device from excessive exposure to dust during use or storage. Dust can build up inside the device, increasing the risk of electrical shock, short-circuiting, or fire.
          • Do not block any ventilation openings on the device. These help to keep the device cool during operation. Blocking the ventilation openings may increase the risk of electrical shock, short-circuiting, or fire.

          Safety Precautions

          • Use proper anti-static precautions when handling this device. Failure to do so can increase the risk of electrical shock or short-circuiting.
          • Never expose your device to rain, or use it near water, or in damp wet conditions. Never place objects containing liquids on the device, as they may spill everywhere and into the openings. This will increase the risk of electrical shock, short-circuiting, fire, or personal injury.
          • To avoid any risk of electrical shock, short-circuiting, fire, or dangerous emissions, never insert any metallic object into the device.
          • Please cease use of the device and contact OWC Support if it appears to be malfunctioning.

          Terms & Conditions of Sale

          Warranty

          The OWC Thunderbolt 5 Express 4M2 Ultra has a 2 Year OWC Limited Warranty. For up-to-date product and warranty information, please visit the product web page.

          Changes

          The material in this document is for information purposes only and subject to change without notice. While reasonable efforts have been made in the preparation of this document to assure its accuracy, OWC, its parent, partners, affiliates, officers, employees, and agents assume no liability resulting from errors or omissions in this document, or from the use of the information contained herein. OWC reserves the right to make changes or revisions in the product design or the product manual without reservation and without obligation to notify any person of such revisions and changes.

          FCC Statement

          Warning! Modifications not authorized by the manufacturer may void the user’s authority to operate this device.

          NOTE: This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device, pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a residential installation. This equipment generates, uses and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the instructions, may cause harmful interference to radio communications. However, there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular installation. If this equipment does cause harmful interference with radio or television reception, which can be determined by turning the equipment off and on, the user is encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or more of the following measures:

          • Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna.
          • Increase the separation between the equipment and receiver.
          • Connect the equipment to an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the receiver is connected.

          Copyrights And Trademarks

          © 2025 Other World Computing, Inc. All rights reserved. OWC, the OWC logo, SoftRAID, and the SoftRAID logo are trademarks of New Concepts Development Corporation, registered in the U.S. and/or other countries. Express is a trademark of Other World Computing, Inc. Mac and macOS are trademarks of Apple Inc. registered in the U.S. and in other countries. Thunderbolt and the Thunderbolt logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and/or other countries. Microsoft and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Other marks may be the trademark or registered trademark property of their owners. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written consent of OWC.

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