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User profile for user: robert l. tucker
robert l. tucker Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

This is with regard to use of the internal SSD in a 2020 iMac running Big Sur

My new (since last August) desktop iMac has 1TB of internal SSD which is 512GB more than usual for the model.


The reason I bought a larger SSD than the model size is I have hundreds of 3D printer .STL files and thousands of photographs as well as many GB of miscellaneous files from Macs I have owned since the 1980s that I want to store there, and I want and need immediate access to virtually all of them.


Incredibly, with Big Sur I do not have and cannot get permission to WRITE to the internal SSD.


I can no longer drag desktop files to and from the internal drive like I been able to the earliest days of Macs. It makes so little sense to me that I can't drag and drop files to my internal drive that I have to conclude that I am am missing something.


Someone, anyone... please tell me how to fix this problem.


Why does Apple sell a long-time customer a TB of internal SSD if he isn't permitted to use it?


Robert

iMac, macOS 10.12

Posted on Feb 26, 2021 9:06 PM

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User profile for user: Jack-19
Jack-19
User level: Level 8
46,014 points

Posted on Feb 26, 2021 9:57 PM

To create a shortcut on the desktop, go to the folder in your home folder/iCloud you want to move to the desktop, then control + click (right click) > Make Alias. Drag the Alias to the desktop.


Cheers,


Jack

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User profile for user: babowa
babowa
User level: Level 9
78,429 points

Feb 26, 2021 9:22 PM in response to robert l. tucker

What OS version are you running?


Starting with Catalina, the OS and system are now "quarantined" in a read only volume which is not accessible to you or anyone or anything else. However, of course you can write to your Data volume (or User folder) where anything you do should be filed anyway. So, when you are dragging files - where exactly are you trying to drop them? If it to the hard drive/system folder, you cannot write to it.


Here is a screenshot of a Finder window running Big Sur - you can easily drag to your Documents folder for instance:



PS @ Jack: when I started to write this, your post was not there!

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User profile for user: robert l. tucker
robert l. tucker Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Feb 26, 2021 9:53 PM in response to babowa

Thank you for the prompt responses, Jack and babowa.


In the past (for decades, actually) one could drag files from the desktop onto the ICON of the internal drive. And one could double click the icon to see the files right there.


I really miss that beautiful simplicity.


I have learned to use the Users folder with its several internal folders (I had no idea it was also called the Data volume), so I guess I'm good to go. I submitted my inquiry in one last hope that there was a way to go back to sensibility.


I have always wondered why Apple makes the System and Library folders visible. What is the point?


I haven't tried the following but will as soon as I hit Post:


How about moving one of the folders in the Users folder out onto the desktop, the purpose being to allow one to drag files in and out in sort of a last ditch try to preserve the action of the old way?


Robert

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This is with regard to use of the internal SSD in a 2020 iMac running Big Sur

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