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How to Browse a Hard Drive?

Thanks to the Aqua user interface you have different options to browse through your system with simple clicks of the mouse and keystrokes.  If you prefer the command line you can launch the Terminal applications and browse with keystrokes.
The two easiest Aqua components to help you browse are the Finder and Spotlight.

Using Finder
To begin you can either open a Finder window from the Dock, the Menu Bar, or by simply double click on a hard drive.  Most Macs only have one hard drive called the "Macintosh HD".  A Finder window will appear based on how it and the Sidebar have been configured.

You will see that the window is divided into two parts, the left is called the Sidebar.  A single click will select an item in the Sidebar whereas double clicks are required to select an item in the Finder Window on the right.  It's that simple.

Using Spotlight
Spotlight is the Mac OS X desktop search technology that makes it easy to search for things no matter where they are located.  To find something you will need to initiate a search.  Read the following guides:

Use the Command Line

An alternate method to browse through a hard drive would be to use the command line.  You can do this with the Terminal application.  The command line requires knowledge of the appropriate UNIX commands.

| Posted to: Finder | Mac OS X Basics | Spotlight