How do you see files on harddrive without using Terminal?

[duggram]

Is terminal the only way to see files on your harddrive? How do you move files to an SD card if you can't see them on your harddrive? Finder is Windows on a Mac; it's always trying to hide things from me.

I'm a windows user trying to switch. In windows it is really easy to see your harddrive. How can I do the same thing in Mac?

This weekend I took a bunch of videos with a new GoPro. After each session I would put the SD card in the SD/USB adapter and iphoto would import them and clean the card off real nice. So now I would like to view all the files on the hard drive, rename them, put them on another sd card, in other words I want to work with them. Why is mac trying to keep me from doing this? Very frustrating for a new user.

 

[mkrishnan]

I think your core problem is you want your Mac to behave like it's running Windows. If that's what you need, then run Windows on it (or get another PC with Windows pre-installed).

But on the other hand, I think something must have possessed you to get a Mac in the first place, right? If so, why not give it a fair try?

Finder does hide files -- predominantly system files, just like Explorer does in Windows. It doesn't hide things like media files.

However, when you import a file into iPhoto, it doesn't just store it on your hard drive, because iPhoto's whole purpose is to take care of organizing that media for you.

This is how iPhoto is intended to be used:

- if you want to copy content from iPhoto to an SD card, just insert the card, open it up in Finder, and drag the content from the iPhoto window to the card.

- if you want to edit a photo that's in iPhoto with another program, just drag it to the dock icon of your editor. If you always edit with the same program, e.g. Photoshop, designate it as the external editor in iPhoto's preferences, and you can just double click the photo to have it edit in the editor.

Otherwise, I'm just giving you fair warning. You can try and try to make OS X and iLife behave like a Windows PC, but why? Windows is the best Windows there is. OS X will never be a better Windows than Windows is. OS X is a better OS X, though. It's not just an equivalent set of APIs. You won't really enjoy it until you at least try to embrace the philosophy that caused Apple to design it the way they designed it.

To keep trying to convert OS X into Windows is like trying to replace the graphite in your pencil with ink instead of just buying a pen.