How To View a Computer Hard Drive

To this day, it is no longer a surprise to people that hundreds of songs can be stored in such a small and light electronic device like an iPod. And like any other music players that are digital, hard drives have the same capacity. A hard drive is a memory device for computers that is incredibly efficient. In order to store a large amount of data and information, it makes use of simple magnetism where with every file that is stored, it stays kept even when the computer is switched off. This device was invented half a century ago and during the 1980’s. It is already used in personal computers. Although it is the computer’s microprocessor that functions as the ‘thinker’, the hard drive remains to be a vital part of the computer for it is where all your files – be it music, digital photos or text documents – can be stored. So if you want to view the contents of your hard drive, follow the steps below.

Most people use Windows as the operating system of their computer. If you are one of them, follow these instructions.

* Turn your computer on and once you see your desktop before you, click on the Start menu. This is usually located at the bottom of the screen.
* After clicking the Start menu, select "My Computer". This goes for the first versions of Windows up to XP. Windows Vista and the versions after that simply indicate “Computer”.
* Upon selecting that option, a window will appear. Such window will display icons with respect to the CD and/or DVD drives of your computer, or any hard drive connected to it for that matter. But since we are concerned with viewing the contents of your computer’s main hard drive, choose the one that says "Drive C:".
* Upon double-clicking “Drive C:”, the content will then be displayed in folders.

If in case you are using Mac instead of Windows as your operating system, follow the instructions below instead.

* Once you see the desktop after turning your Mac computer on, click on “Finder”
* After clicking “Finder”, select "File" followed by "New Finder Window."
* When you have clicked “New Finder Window”, the hard drives connected will appear on the left side of the window. By default, you will be able to locate the main hard drive under the section “Devices” and is usually called "Macintosh HD". And like in Windows, the contents will be shown in a folder.


A hard drive is indeed an incredibly remarkable piece of technology. However, it also has drawbacks. One of which is that when dust starts to accumulate inside them or when they start getting dirty, hard drives start to have troubles functioning. This is the reason why it is not always advisable to just rely on your hard drive alone. It is always a good thing if you store back-up copies of your files in different hard drives. You can opt to use a DVD, CD, or better yet, a memory stick. Another option would be to have your hard drive cleaned from time to time.