External Hard-drive - (Ex Win 10)

[Jimmysb]

I have just come across to Mac from windows 10, and have removed one of my SSDs, and put in in an external case, which is now connected to my Mac Mini. I can see the drive, and I can access the folders and files, however, I cannot send any of the existing files or folders on this drive "to the bin", or write to it. In the disk utility Erase seems to be available, do I have to reformat to make the drive usable.

 

[MacInWin]

If the drive is formatted NTFS, which is the Windows default, macOS can read, but not write, to that drive unless you use a third-party extension. So, depending on what you are headed for, you can copy what's there to the Mac, then use Disk Utility to reformat it to APFS, the macOS default, or FAT32, which is workable with both Mac and Windows.

 

[Jimmysb]

If the drive is formatted NTFS, which is the Windows default, macOS can read, but not write, to that drive unless you use a third-party extension. So, depending on what you are headed for, you can copy what's there to the Mac, then use Disk Utility to reformat it to APFS, the macOS default, or FAT32, which is workable with both Mac and Windows.

Perfect, (the answer is), though not what I wanted to hear, many thanks, at least I know which direction to go in

 

[MacInWin]

You can for for that third party extension, if you want. Some of us have use ParagonNTFS successfully, although I don't know if they have a version for Mx Macs yet.

EDIT: It does claim to be M1/M2 compatible.

Microsoft NTFS for Mac | Paragon Software

Boost Your Mac with Paragon File System Link. Read/write Microsoft NTFS files on your Mac for free.

www.paragon-software.com

 

[Jimmysb]

You can for for that third party extension, if you want. Some of us have use ParagonNTFS successfully, although I don't know if they have a version for Mx Macs yet.

EDIT: It does claim to be M1/M2 compatible.

Microsoft NTFS for Mac | Paragon Software

Boost Your Mac with Paragon File System Link. Read/write Microsoft NTFS files on your Mac for free.

www.paragon-software.com

Many thanks, moved the data over, and formatted, a couple of minor hiccups, but done now and installed as my Time-Machine