Macintosh HD Gets a New Look in Latest macOS Tahoe Beta

Apple has been updating some classic Mac icons during the macOS Tahoe beta, upsetting some longtime Mac users who prefer the original look. In beta 5, Apple changed the design of the built-in Mac storage icon, which you'll notice if you have it on your desktop.

macOS Tahoe Beta 5 Macintosh HD
The existing icon still resembled a hard disk drive, but the new icon looks like a modern solid state drive. Apple's Macs stopped using hard disk drives starting more than a decade ago. The low-cost 21.5-inch iMac was the last Mac that had a hard drive component, as it used Apple's SSD + HDD Fusion Drive. All current Macs use SSDs.

If you don't want to see the new icon, you can hide Macintosh HD from view entirely. To do so, open up the Finder app's settings and click the check mark next to "Hard disks."

Apple also updated Disk Utility and the Finder icon in earlier betas. With the Finder icon, Apple initially reversed the color scheme with the light shade on the left and the dark on the right, but the uproar was so significant that Apple had to return it to the classic color arrangement.

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Top Rated Comments

Zorn Avatar
12 weeks ago
They wisely made it an external SSD, perhaps a Freudian slip at how no one can afford their internal storage upgrade pricing :P
Score: 76 Votes (Like | Disagree)
zakarhino Avatar
12 weeks ago
I hate it
Score: 57 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jakey rolling Avatar
12 weeks ago
I get that an update is probably long overdue, but the original HD icon's whole purpose was to make it glaringly obvious to the user that they are interacting with the local "internal" drive, rather than a network share or an external drive. Changing the icon to what looks like an external SSD kind of defeats that purpose.

There's a reason why the save button in so many applications is still a 3.5" floppy disk.
Score: 47 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jmckenzie Avatar
12 weeks ago
What’s up with that perspective, is it…. isometric? Looks weird.
Score: 44 Votes (Like | Disagree)
frou Avatar
12 weeks ago
What are the 3 holes? Triple headphone jack?
Score: 40 Votes (Like | Disagree)
swixo Avatar
12 weeks ago
Worth the update just for that.
Score: 32 Votes (Like | Disagree)