Show Macintosh HD and your drives in the Finder sidebar

Why it happens

Finder hides some places in the sidebar to keep it short, and your Mac's own disk is one of them. Macintosh HD is still there and working, just not listed. You choose which disks, servers and cloud folders show.

How to fix it

1. Click Finder in the Dock so Finder is the active app.

2. Choose Finder > Settings… from the menu bar, then click Sidebar.

3. Under Show these items in the sidebar, tick Hard disks to show Macintosh HD, and External disks for USB drives and memory cards. Tick your Mac's name as well if you want the whole computer listed.

   Finder›Settings…›Sidebar›Show these items in the sidebar

4. Look at the Locations part of the sidebar. If it's folded away, hold the pointer over the word Locations and click the arrow that appears.

Still not fixed?

1. Want Macintosh HD on the desktop too? Click General in the same Settings window and tick Hard disks.

   Finder›Settings…›General

2. To open Macintosh HD right now, choose Go > Computer in Finder, then double-click it.

   Finder›Go›Computer

3. If an external drive still doesn't show, tick External disks under General as well, then open Disk Utility to see whether your Mac can see the drive at all.

   Finder›Settings…›General›External disks

4. If a disk is missing from Disk Utility too, it may be a hardware problem with the drive, its cable or the port. Back up what you can and contact Apple Support or a repair shop.