Free Mac Hard Drive Icons

How to remove the hard drive icons from your desktop on Mac OS X. This is simple trick found in the Finder Preferences that will help you declutter your desk.

  • HFSExplorer is completely free; it’s a basic application designed to help users.
  • Mac Icons - Download 204 Free Mac icons @ IconArchive. Separate partition on the same hard-drive (ie., dual-boot) using just 1 partition (a Linux swapfile will. Jul 21, 2010 — Download Mac Style Disc Drive Icons - A set of icons based on the original Mac icons for external, removable and optical drives.

The Optimized Storage features of your Mac help you save storage space by storing your content in iCloud and making it available on demand:

  • When storage space is needed, files, photos, movies, email attachments, and other files that you seldom use are stored in iCloud automatically.
  • Each file stays right where you last saved it, and downloads when you open it.
  • Files that you’ve used recently remain on your Mac, along with optimized versions of your photos.

If you haven't yet upgraded to macOS Sierra or later, learn about other ways to free up storage space.

Find out how much storage is available on your Mac

Choose Apple menu  > About This Mac, then click Storage. Each segment of the bar is an estimate of the storage space used by a category of files. Move your pointer over each segment for more detail.

Free Mac Hard Drive IconsFree Mac Hard Drive Icons

Click the Manage button to open the Storage Management window, pictured below.

Manage storage on your Mac

The Storage Management window offers recommendations for optimizing your storage. If some recommendations are already turned on, you will see fewer recommendations.

Store in iCloud

Click the Store in iCloud button, then choose from these options:

  • Desktop and Documents. Store all files from these two locations in iCloud Drive. When storage space is needed, only the files you recently opened are kept on your Mac, so that you can easily work offline. Files stored only in iCloud show a download icon , which you can double-click to download the original file. Learn more about this feature.
  • Photos. Store all original, full-resolution photos and videos in iCloud Photos. When storage space is needed, only space-saving (optimized) versions of photos are kept on your Mac. To download the original photo or video, just open it.
  • Messages. Store all messages and attachments in iCloud. When storage space is needed, only the messages and attachments you recently opened are kept on your Mac. Learn more about Messages in iCloud.

Storing files in iCloud uses the storage space in your iCloud storage plan. If you reach or exceed your iCloud storage limit, you can either buy more iCloud storage or make more iCloud storage available. iCloud storage starts at 50GB for $0.99 (USD) a month, and you can purchase additional storage directly from your Apple device. Learn more about prices in your region.

Optimize Storage

Click the Optimize button to save space by automatically removing watched movies and TV shows. When storage space is needed, movies or TV shows that you purchased from Apple and already watched are removed from your Mac. Click the download icon next to a movie or TV show to download it again.

Free Mac Hard Drive Icons

Your Mac will also save space by keeping only recent email attachments on this Mac when storage space is needed. You can manually download any attachments at any time by opening the email or attachment, or saving the attachment to your Mac.

Optimizing storage for movies, TV shows, and email attachments doesn't require iCloud storage space.

Empty Trash Automatically

Empty Trash Automatically permanently deletes files that have been in the Trash for more than 30 days.

Reduce Clutter

Reduce Clutter helps you identify large files and files you might no longer need. Click the Review Files button, then choose any of the file categories in the sidebar, such as Applications, Documents, Music Creation, or Trash.

You can delete the files in some categories directly from this window. Other categories show the total storage space used by the files in each app. You can then open the app and decide whether to delete files from within it.

Mac Os Disk Icons

Learn how to redownload apps, music, movies, TV shows, and books.


Where to find the settings for each feature

The button for each recommendation in the Storage Management window affects one or more settings in other apps. You can also control those settings directly within each app.

  • If you're using macOS Catalina or later, choose Apple menu  > System Preferences, click Apple ID, then select iCloud in the sidebar: Store in iCloud turns on the Optimize Mac Storage setting on the right. To turn off iCloud Drive entirely, deselect iCloud Drive.
  • If you're using macOS Mojave or earlier, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click iCloud, then click Options next to iCloud Drive. Store in iCloud turns on the Desktop & Documents Folders and Optimize Mac Storage settings.
  • In Photos, choose Photos > Preferences, then click iCloud. Store in iCloud selects iCloud Photos and Optimize Mac Storage.
  • In Messages, choose Messages > Preferences, then click iMessage. Store in iCloud selects Enable Messages in iCloud.
  • If you're using macOS Catalina or later, open the Apple TV app, choose TV > Preferences from the menu bar, then click Files. Optimize Storage selects “Automatically delete watched movies and TV shows.”
  • In you're using macOS Mojave or earlier, open iTunes, choose iTunes > Preferences from the menu bar, then click Advanced. Optimize Storage selects “Automatically delete watched movies and TV shows.”
  • In Mail, choose Mail > Preferences from the menu bar, then click Accounts. In the Account Information section on the right, Optimize Storage sets the Download Attachments menu to either Recent or None.

Empty Trash Automatically: From the Finder, choose Finder > Preferences, then click Advanced. Empty Trash Automatically selects “Remove items from the Trash after 30 days.”

Other ways that macOS helps automatically save space

With macOS Sierra or later, your Mac automatically takes these additional steps to save storage space:

Change drive icon mac
  • Detects duplicate downloads in Safari, keeping only the most recent version of the download
  • Reminds you to delete used app installers
  • Removes old fonts, languages, and dictionaries that aren't being used
  • Clears caches, logs, and other unnecessary data when storage space is needed

How to free up storage space manually

Even without using the Optimized Storage features described in this article, you can take other steps to make more storage space available:

  • Music, movies, and other media can use a lot of storage space. Learn how to delete music, movies, and TV shows from your device.
  • Delete other files that you no longer need by moving them to the Trash, then emptying the Trash. The Downloads folder is good place to look for files that you might no longer need.
  • Move files to an external storage device.
  • Compress files.
  • Delete unneeded email: In the Mail app, choose Mailbox > Erase Junk Mail. If you no longer need the email in your Trash mailbox, choose Mailbox > Erase Deleted Items.

Learn more

Free Mac Hard Drive Icons List

  • The Storage pane of About This Mac is the best way to determine the amount of storage space available on your Mac. Disk Utility and other apps might show storage categories such as Not Mounted, VM, Recovery, Other Volumes, Other, Free, or Purgeable. Don't rely on these categories to understand how to free up storage space or how much storage space is available for your data.
  • When you duplicate a file on an APFS-formatted volume, that file doesn't use additional storage space on the volume. Deleting a duplicate file frees up only the space required by any data you might have added to the duplicate. If you no longer need any copies of the file, you can recover all of the storage space by deleting both the duplicate and the original file.
  • If you're using a pro app and Optimize Mac Storage, learn how to make sure that your projects are always on your Mac and able to access their files.

The hard drive icons on your desktop are helpful for easy access to their contents. Some of these icons are the primary drive, secondary drive and the external drive. It would be a huge inconvenience if these icons disappear. There are several reasons why these Mac hard drive icons may disappear. This includes incorrect settings and corrupted files. There are things that you can try to bring back these icons. Furthermore, if you would like to change these icons, it is also possible.

10. Restart Your Computer

This is the most basic troubleshooting step that you should try on most computer problems. It is often overlooked, but sometimes it could effectively resolve the issue. Since this is easy to do and it will only take a few seconds. Why not give it a try? This resets the computer and should fix any temporary problems that it may experience, including missing Mac hard drive icons. To restart your computer properly, press Control + Command + Eject or Control + Command + Power button.

9. Change Your Computer Settings

Another reason why your hard drive icons or any other icons on your computer are missing is because of your settings. It may be set to hide the icons. To enable the system to show these icons, select Preferences from Finder. On the toolbar, click on the icon for General. Under “Show These Items On The Desktop”, make sure that the option for Hard Disks is selected. If it is not, click on the said option to enable. If there are other icons missing aside from the hard drive, click on them to enable and show them on your desktop.

8. Drag HD Icon To Desktop

If you can’t see your hard drive icon on your computer, another way on how to make it appear is by getting a copy of it and placing it on your desktop. This is an easy solution that might actually fix your concern. To do this, go to Finder once more and click Go on the toolbar. Choose Go To Folder, then enter “/volumes”. The HD icon should show up. Drag this to your desktop so you can have a copy again.

7. Show Hard Drive Using ScriptEditor

There is a certain script that you need to enter on the editor to make the missing hard drive icon show up again. Don’t worry about the script since you just have to copy and paste it on the editor. It should appear exactly as the script below except for the “NameofDisk”. Change it to the name that you wish to have for your hard drive. After copying and pasting the script below to the editor, click the Compile icon. This will check for any errors that you may have on the script. Once done checking for errors, click the Run icon.

tell application “System Events”
set visible of disk “NameofDisk” to true
end tell

tell application “Finder” to quit
delay 1
tell application “Finder” to launch

6. TechTool Pro 6

Change Drive Icon Mac

If the previous solutions did not fix the concern, it is possible that there might be a corrupted file or damage in your system. There are various programs that you can use to repair these damaged files so you can get your computer working fine again. This includes restoring missing icons like your hard drive icon. One of the programs that you can try is TechTool Pro 5. This software is available for $99.99. Aside from missing icons, it can also detect and fix other problems that you may have on your Mac. This can prevent costly repair if hiring a technician. Plus, this will keep your computer running smoothly. It has a user friendly interface making it easy to use. Even if you are a beginner, you will not have trouble learning how to use this program.

5. OnyX

This is a tool that you can use to maintain your system and keep it optimized. It can check your computer for any errors and corrupted files and give you the option to fix them. This includes missing icons on your desktop that may be caused by corrupted files. Aside from this, it also offers other features that you can use on your computer. Some of them are clearing browser cache, deleting applications and removing stored passwords.

4. UnHide

Free Mac Hard Drive Icons Images

This is a free program that you can use for showing missing icons and files that were hidden due to a fake antispyware program. These malicious programs pretend that they are maintenance and repair applications. When you fall for their trap, your computer will be infected and you will start to see files and icons missing on your system. UnHide reverts the changes made by spyware. This means that if the icons were hidden because of this, you will be able to restore them through this application. However, this is only applicable for internal drives. Since removable drives are not attacked by this rogue spyware, you may need to use another program for fixing the issue for missing removal drives. Install UnHide and open the program to start the process. A black window will appear which means that it is performing the scan and repair. Restart your computer once done.

3. DiskWarrior

Other users who were experiencing the same issue have reported about running DiskWarrior on their computer and it brought back their missing icons. This program helps recover files and restore your system. This is a powerful utility that can get missing files and icons even from a badly damaged hard drive.

Drive

2. Download New Hard Drive Icon

Once you fixed the problem of missing icons, you have the option to change them. There are several designs of hard drive icons available online. Use your web browser to look for sites that offer them so you can save and use the icons on your computer. One of the best sites that you can go to is IconArchive. The icons are downloadable in varying sizes and formats.

1. Change the Hard Drive Icon

After downloading the icons that you wish to use, you can now change the icons for your hard drive. Go to your downloads folder and click the icon that you downloaded. Press Command + C and this will copy the icon to the computer’s clipboard. Go to the desktop then right click on the icon that you wish to change. Click Get Info. Click the thumbnail of the hard drive icon and press Command + V. This will paste the icon that you copied.

Mac Hard Drive Icons Images

Next time you experience missing Mac hard drive icons you don’t have to panic as you already know what to do. Furthermore, you may customize and change them into other icons that you want.