What do you mean, "open my hard drive?"

Macs are fun machines, but take some getting used to. We hope you learn to love your Mac as much as we love ours, so this little series of screenshots and informational text is presented in a lighthearted and fun manner. Come along with us, won't you?

A support representative might as you to "open your hard drive" to perform a task or walk you through an installation. The Hard Drive is the main drive of your Macintosh, where the operating system, application files, and personal files and folders are generally located.  The Hard Drive is represented by the icon in the top right. Some users rename this drive--and quite creatively, too--but it is always the main drive upon which your operating system resides. Most users only have one hard drive, however, other partitions or drives connected to your machine may also appear on your screen. In most cases, the Hard Drive (or its namesake) will always be on the top right corner of the desktop in a default (not a customized) desktop display.

This represents an average Mac OS X desktop. Okay--maybe not the AVERAGE desktop, which is usually quite cluttered with stuff--but the average desktop of a "clean" Mac. (You should've seen it before I cleaned it for the picture!)

Yeah, okay--but how do I OPEN the Hard Drive?

Move your mouse cursor over the Hard Drive icon and double click to "open" the hard drive, as a support rep may request. This opens a Finder window, displaying a list of files and folders installed on your computer. Go to the next section to learn more about your Hard Drive and its contents. If you want to keep reading this, that's good too, since there is another link to the next section at the bottom of this page!

Am I the system administrator? Find out info with Mac Help

To access Mac Help, select Help from the Finder's File menu at the top of the screen and click Mac Help, or with they keyboard press Control (apple key) ? (question mark key).

Enter a question or search words in the entry box on the top right hand side of the screen and then press the Enter key. A list of topics will appear. Select the one that best suits your needs.

How to identify your Macintosh Operating System (OS)

Look in the top left corner of your screen. You will see a small Apple icon that might be blue, gray, or even rainbow-colored.

• If you see a blue or a gray apple, click it, and from the menu that appears, select About This Mac.
  A small window will open in the middle of your computer screen. Below another image of an apple will appear the words Mac OS X, followed by the exact version number (for example, 10.2.8)
• If you see a rainbow-colored apple, you are using an older Macintosh OS, such as 8.6 or 9, or else running a Classic application under OS X.
  

  If you are running Classic under OS X: you will still see your Dock and desktop background. Click either the Dock or the desktop background to return to the Finder, in which you can then click the blue or gray apple icon in the top left. (See above.)
  
  If you are running an older OS: click the rainbow-colored apple in the top left, and then select About This Computer.
  A window will open with your current version displayed in a large banner. Immediately below this will be the exact version of the operating system you are using (for example, the banner will read Mac OS 9.2, and in the list below, you will see Version: Mac OS 9.2.2

NEXT: Where is my Applications or Documents folder, anyway? What's on the Hard Drive?

To find out more about your particular Macintosh and your operating system, please go to Apple.com and click the Support tab.