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People who are neat freaks like me like to keep their computers’ desktops clear of any junk. That means files, folders, and the Macintosh HD icon, of course. When we set up a new Mac, one of the first things we do is get rid of the Remove Or Hide Macintosh HD on Mac
Even though it’s easy to hide that icon, less tech-savvy people might not know how to do it. So, in this post, I’ll talk about how to get rid of the Macintosh HD or hard disk/SSD icon from your Mac’s desktop.
How to Remove/Hide Macintosh from Mac Desktop
The Macintosh HD installed on your computer’s desktop cannot be deleted. However, if you do not want Macintosh HD to appear on your desktop, you may adjust the Finder preference settings to make it disappear from your desktop. Follow the steps below to remove the Macintosh HD icon from your desktop on macOS Monterey, Big Sur, and Catalina.
- Step 1. Select the Finder tab from the menu bar.
- Step 2. Navigate to the Finder’s top-level menu and select Finder in the Preferences.
- Step 3. In the Finder Preferences, click on General.
- Step 4. Disable the Hard drives option by clicking on it. Remove the option for External disks from your desktop if you also wish to remove external hard drives from your computer.
- Step 5. Close the Finder Preferences window and exit the program.
- Step 6. When you start up your MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, or other models, the Macintosh HD symbol will no longer appear on your desktop.
What is Macintosh HD on your desktop?
Macintosh HD on your desktop is the name of the startup disk on a Mac that runs macOS 10.15 Catalina, macOS 11 Big Sur, macOS 12 Monterey, or macOS 13 Ventura. On a Mac running macOS 10.15 or later, the internal hard drive has two volumes by default.
The files for the operating system and software are kept on the one called Macintosh HD. The other is called Macintosh HD – Data and is used to store user files like documents and pictures. But in Finder and on the desktop, the two volumes show up as a single unit called Macintosh HD.
FAQs
That’s normal. The Mac HD – Data volume is where your files and apps are kept and you have access to them just like the older system volumes. The Macintosh HD volume is where the system and system support files are kept and the user has no access to them. It’s part of the new security that Catalina brings to the table.
Here erasing the startup disk means erasing the Macintosh HD volume. Erasing Macintosh HD creates a clean and stable environment for reinstalling macOS. It frees up enough storage space on Macintosh HD for the upcoming operating system.
In Disk Utility on Mac, you can erase and reformat storage devices to use with your Mac. Erasing a storage device deletes everything on it. If you have any files you want to save, copy them to another storage device.