Hard drive

[ossyman]

how can I see what is stored on my hard drive?

[vehelpfulguy]

There are lots of different ways of doing this in Windows. Here is one way using XP.

On your desktop double click on the My Computer icon. If you have not got My Computer on your desktop then select it from the "Start" menu.

This opens a My Computer folder.

This folder will have little icons representing the different things on your PC like hard disks and CD or DVD drives.

Under hard disk drives find the icon for the C: drive.

Double click on it and a window opens showing all files and folders on your hard drive.

(Windows MAY give you a warning message at some point about looking at your hard drive but just carry on).

You can navigate around the different folders by double clicking on the folder and "drilling down".

You can use the "back" button n the top left to drill back up.

WARNING. DONY DELETE ANYTHING OFF YOUR HARD DRIVE IF YOU DONT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING.

Windows keeps all sorts of files on the hard disk and deleting the wrong file could stop your computer working.

[LeMarchand]

Go to My Computer and click on the hard drive that you want to look at (you probably only have one, named "C"). You can then browse through your disc. Log on using an Admin account.

To see everything go to Tools>Folder Options>View and enable "Show hidden files and folders" while disabling "Hide protected operating system files". BE WARNED doing so will make important parts of your system vulnerable to accidental deletion/damage and (from the sounds of your post) I don't think that this would be a good idea.

If you give some idea of what you are looking for, it would help.

PS: The above methods will only show files that have not been deleted. To see those you will need something like "Restoration" which may take a VERY long time to run, especially if you have a large hard drive.

[Ethel]

Open Windows Explorer:

Start - all programmes - accessories - windows explorer.

This shows everything on your hard drive, using collapsing folders.