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.
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.
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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.
