Why can't I copy a folder to the external drive?

I have an external drive that I am able to successfully backup files to but I cannot copy and paste a folder to this same external drive. Is it not possible to use a drive for both backup and for storing files? Below are two screen shots showing the drive.

Any help will be appreciated.

Screen Shot 2021-12-28 at 5.17.48 PM

AFAIK that isn’t possible. I’m not familiar with sandisk’s unlocker, but if your TM drive is apfs you can create an additional volume and use that for regular files.

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I believe that you can store files on a time machine drive per this link. https://www.howtogeek.com/212445/how-to-use-a-time-machine-drive-for-both-file-storage-and-backups/

However I would probably create another partition/volume as suggested

Thanks @WayneG and @r2d2. I’ve never created a separate partition on a drive before but the instructions given in the link above are straightforward. I’ll give that a try. I also may have found, courtesy of @r2d2, a new website for learning a few new geek tips and tricks. :slightly_smiling_face:

Thanks again!

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Be careful when you resize partitions that already have data because the operation could cause data loss. Also, I believe if you’re using SSD, then APFS is good. If you were using an external HDD, then you might not want to format as APFS. There was a notice at some point about Time Machine and using HFS+ (but that info may be dated). Here’s a link from 2019 https://www.howtogeek.com/331042/whats-the-difference-between-apfs-macos-extended-hfs-and-exfat/

I’m using this external drive:

All I want to do is create a space on this drive so I can copy/paste a large folder/subfolders to it. Based on this drive and if I don’t resize the current partition, am I safe in creating another volume/partition (is there a difference?) on the drive?

The SanDisk Extreme is solid. So you’ll want to use APFS with the SSD. Be sure to understand the difference between a volume and container. Looks like you’ll be ok with using either method for time machine and the second space

Here’s a blog post he wrote in 2019 about an APFS volume vs container.