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  4. How to View the Contents of a Hard Drive

How to View the Contents of a Hard Drive

March 31, 2015
By: Michael Dance
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No matter what kind of bells and whistles your computer came with, everything is in service to the stuff that's actually on it--all the programs, games, documents and multimedia that make up your hard drive or hard drives. Luckily, viewing the contents of said hard drives is a straightforward experience, no matter what operating system you have.

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How to View the Contents of a Hard Drive
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Viewing the Contents of your Hard Drive in Windows

Step

Open the Start Menu (in the lower left-hand corner of your screen).

Step

Click "My Computer" (in XP or previous) or "Computer" (in Vista or beyond). A window should open that shows icons for your CD or DVD drives and any hard drives you have connected to your computer. The main hard drive built into your computer is called "Drive C:."

Step

Double-click on the hard drive you wish to view. The content will be arranged in a hierarchy of folders.

Viewing the Contents of your Hard Drive on a Mac

Step

Close all open programs until only the "Finder" appears on the top bar of your desktop.

Step

Click "File," then click "New Finder Window."

Step

Select the desired hard drive on the left panel of the window. By default it is often called "Macintosh HD" and should be under the Devices section. As with Windows, your hard drive will consist of a hierarchy of folders.

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