External hard drives

[mashedtater]

is there away to actually see what is on the hard drive.

 

[spinny]

*confused* If you are using windows, you go to My Computer or Computer and then choose whichever drive you want to see what is on (default is C:\) and it will show you the file/folder structure of the hard drive. If you need to see hidden or some system files, you will need to change a setting (google it).

 

[sminlal]

You can use this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_developer

...but of course you'll have to open up the drive which will basically render it useless, and you'll have to use a microscope because the bits are so small...

 

[jsc]

Or a disk editor program.

 

[KyleSTL]

Try the program HDGraph if you want to know the distribution of data across the file structure. I've used it multiple time to diagnose where all the free space is being eaten up.

If you're talking about an old bare disc outside the computer, you'll have to hook it up to a system to explore what's on it.

Your question is incredibly vague and it's hard to help you based on what you provided.