Abstract: A highly efficient decoding method is derived to correct both erasures and errors for Reed-Solomon (RS) codes, which takes the advantages of the Euclidean algorithm and the BM algorithm. The new decoding method computes the errata locator polynomial and the errata evaluator polynomial simultaneously without performing the polynomial divisions, and there is no need to compute the discrepancies and the field element inversions. Also, separate computations of the erasure locator polynomial and the Forney syndromes are avoided. Moreover, a simple and fast process for a finite field multiplication and finite field inversion is provided.