Matt Cone December 21, 2011 TutorialsMac
Ever wonder how much free space is available on your Mac's hard disk or partitions? It's easy to check in OS X. Plus, if your Mac is running Mac OS 10.7 or later, the interface shows which types of files are taking up the most space, a feature that could help you track down space-hogging files and applications.
Make sure it is the external drive and not the Mac's internal drive, as this is the last chance to make sure. Click the Format drop-down box and select APFS. Keeping your hard drive clean is important in making sure that your Mac stays performing at its peak. However, it's not always easy to remember where you stored your files or understand where your storage space went. Visualizing your drive's usage is the best way to quickly recover space and delete unused files. How to read and access Mac Hard Drive on Window pc - YouTube. Here is short video on how you can read or access the Hard Drive that was formatted for mac, using a windows.Software Used. Only when your external hard drive is mounted in Disk Utility that you can access files on the drive on Mac. So, if you can't see files on your external hard drive, you should at first check whether the external hard drive is showing up in Disk Utility and mounted. Go to Applications Utilities Disk Utility.
Checking Available Hard Drive Space on Mac OS 10.7 or Later
If your Mac is running OS 10.7 or later, here's how to check to the available hard drive space on your Mac:
From the Apple menu, select About This Mac. The window shown below appears.
Click More Info. The About This Mac window appears.
Click Storage. The window shown below appears.
Use this window to check how much hard drive space is available on your Mac. The startup disk is shown at the top of the list; other partitions are shown below. Notice that you can see how much of your hard drive space is being consumed by audio files, movies, etc. This information could be useful when your hard drive is nearly full and you need to delete some files.
Checking Available Hard Drive Space on Mac OS 10.6 or Earlier
If your Mac is running Mac OS 10.6 or earlier, here's how to check to the available hard drive space on your Mac:
Switch to the Finder, and then open a new Finder window. Mac word processor pages.
From the sidebar, select your hard disk by clicking it once, as shown below.
From the File menu, select Get Info. The window shown below appears.
The window shows the disk space available on your Mac's hard drive. Unfortunately, there's no slick interface like the one in 10.7 or later, but at least you'll know whether or not you're running out of space on your hard drive.
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How To View Hard Drive Mac
Nicole writes: I just got a new MacBook Air and really like it; however, the Macintosh HD icon is missing from the desktop. How do I set that up?
Hi Nicole! Congrats on the new Mac, but yes, I can see how it might be a bit odd that there's no hard drive icon sitting on your desktop.
Now, one way to deal with a missing Macintosh HD icon is to simply select New Finder Window from the Finder's File menu at the top of the screen; doing so will open a new window that'll allow you to dig into any volume accessible from your Mac, including your hard drive.
No 'Macintosh HD' icon on your Mac desktop? Make sure the 'Hard disks' box is checked in the Finder Preferences window.
That said, I totally get why you'd want the missing Macintosh HD icon back on your desktop. Here's how to do it.
- Click the Finder's File menu at the top of the screen (just click the bare desktop if you don't see the word 'Finder' next to the Apple menu), then select Finder Preferences and click the General tab.
- You should now see a list of all the items that will show up on your desktop. Go ahead and check the box next to 'Hard disks.'
Now, go back and check your desktop. You should see the missing Macintosh HD icon sitting right there, right where it should be.
Hope that helps, Nicole. Still have questions? Let me know!
Bonus tip
Click the Sidebar tab in the Finder Preferences window to pick and choose which items appear in the sidebar of any Finder window. Among the choices: 'All My Files,' Applications, your hard drives, and Downloads.