Other World Computing announced two products at NAB 2026: the OWC Express 4M2 Ultra, which the company calls the first certified Thunderbolt 5 four-slot NVMe M.2 SSD enclosure, and MacDrive 12, a Windows utility that adds read/write support for encrypted APFS volumes.
Express 4M2 Ultra reaches up to 6622 MB/s real-world speeds across four M.2 slots and up to 32TB total capacity
MacDrive 12 gives Windows systems native read/write access to HFS+, APFS, and encrypted APFS
Ship dates: MacDrive 12 on April 28, 2026; Express 4M2 Ultra in Q3 2026
Four Slots, One Box: The Express 4M2 Ultra holds four M.2 2280 or 2242 NVMe SSDs inside an aircraft-grade aluminum chassis with a smart adaptive fan for thermal management.
Per OWC's product announcement, the enclosure supports RAID 0, 1, 4, 5, 10, or JBOD configurations through SoftRAID. Dual Thunderbolt 5 ports allow daisy chaining up to five devices, with backward compatibility for Thunderbolt 4, Thunderbolt 3 (Mac only), and USB4. Total capacity tops out at 32TB across the four slots.
Pricing starts at $399.99 for the standard model and $549.99 for the version bundled with SoftRAID. The unit is slated for Q3 2026 availability.
Crossing the Platform Line: MacDrive 12 targets the opposite challenge: reading and writing Mac-formatted drives on Windows machines.
OWC says the new release adds full read/write support for HFS+, APFS, and encrypted APFS volumes inside Windows Explorer. Compatibility extends to SoftRAID and Apple RAID formats.
Licenses are priced at $59.99 for new users and $29.99 for upgrades, with a release date of April 28, 2026.
Priced for Pros: Both products target working editors and post teams running mixed Mac and PC setups. MacDrive 12 brings encrypted APFS volumes into Windows Explorer without workarounds, while the Express 4M2 Ultra delivers 32TB of high-speed NVMe storage over Thunderbolt 5.
