Icon for Mac internal hard disk not mounting on upper right hand corner.

Question

Icon for Mac internal hard disk not mounting on upper right hand corner.

Hello,

I have been experiencing a problem and have tried several recommended solutions to resolve it but nothing has worked. The problem spans now at least three operating systems with Tahoe as the third one. In other words, I have experienced this with the previous OS and continue to experience now after I upgraded to macOS 26.1 Tahoe.

The problem is the random movement of the hard disk icon from the upper right hand corner of the screen.

Can anyone offer an explanation as to why this keeps happening and now to permanently fix this problem?

Thank you in advance.

Mac mini (M2, 2023)

Posted on Dec 7, 2025 7:54 PM

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Answer 1

steve626

Level 6

13,791 points

Dec 7, 2025 8:56 PM in response to apple_customer

apple_customer wrote:

Hello,

I have been experiencing a problem and have tried several recommended solutions to resolve it but nothing has worked. The problem spans now at least three operating systems with Tahoe as the third one. In other words, I have experienced this with the previous OS and continue to experience now after I upgraded to macOS 26.1 Tahoe.

The problem is the random movement of the hard disk icon from the upper right hand corner of the screen.

Can anyone offer an explanation as to why this keeps happening and now to permanently fix this problem?

Thank you in advance.

Assuming you have followed Leroy's suggestion ...

Try deleting this file and restarting:

yourusername/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist

You can either navigate to that Preferences folder in the Go menu, Go to folder ... or in the Finder if you have set for the Library folder to be visible.

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Answer 2

Dec 8, 2025 2:43 AM in response to apple_customer

It is easy to keep the system drive at the top right.

Just click on your desktop to make it active, press Command-J to "Show Preview", and make sure that "Sort by" is set to "Kind". Done.

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Answer 3

Dec 7, 2025 8:22 PM in response to apple_customer

apple_customer wrote:

Hello,

I have been experiencing a problem and have tried several recommended solutions to resolve it but nothing has worked. The problem spans now at least three operating systems with Tahoe as the third one. In other words, I have experienced this with the previous OS and continue to experience now after I upgraded to macOS 26.1 Tahoe.

The problem is the random movement of the hard disk icon from the upper right hand corner of the screen.

Can anyone offer an explanation as to why this keeps happening and now to permanently fix this problem?

Thank you in advance.

?

The Macintosh HD is mounted, it might not be showing but it does not have to...

It simply takes up valuable screen real estate. A throw back to the old days.

Finder>Settings>General>Hard Disk

Finder>Settings>Sidebar>Locations>Macintosh HD

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Answer 4

Dec 8, 2025 10:41 AM in response to apple_customer

Personally, I have my Hard Disks (even though internal storage is an SSD) set to show on my Desktop, and I have Snap to Grid enabled. The HD icon is at the upper right and it stays there unless I manually move it somewhere else. I mount other drives, save files to my desktop, etc., and the HD icon stays in the upper right spot. If you put it there, does it move around on its own?

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Answer 5

Dec 8, 2025 12:23 AM in response to leroydouglas

Hi Leroy,

Thank you for your response. I understand the point you make but I have grown used to having the internal hard disk on the top right corner of my monitor after nearly 40 years working with the Macintosh and it feels like something is missing when I don't have it there. I find it easier to just double click on it rather than opening finder windows.

This problem has been going on for something now and I don't understand why Apple is having such a difficult time solving it. I have upgraded OS two times now with the expectation the new OS will fix the problem but so far it hasn't.

As far as I can remember, there has never been a similar problem.

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Answer 6

Dec 8, 2025 12:25 AM in response to steve626

Hi Steve and thank you for your help. I just deleted the file as you recommended and restarted my computer. The drive was removed from its position and I placed it back. All my preferences were lost so I have selected snap to grid and many of my files are not staying in their position. I will organize my desktop and hope the drive stays fixed in its position this time.

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Answer 7

Dec 8, 2025 10:32 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Hello Luis and thank you for your help. I don't believe this solution would work for me, and please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, because it will change my desktop arrangement.

I work with a large 43 inch monitor. My desktop has space for a lot of documents and I use this space. As a very visual user, I have documents spread across my desktop and separated by sections that I remember because of my visual memory of their positions. In case I do what you suggested I believe all the icons I have on my desktop will be rearranged and I will loose track of things.

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Answer 8

Dec 8, 2025 11:49 AM in response to neuroanatomist

Thank you for your post, neuroanatomist. I have my system set up the same way as yours. My hard disk is (or should be) setup to the top right of my screen and the desktop is set to 'snap to grid'. The internal hard disk and external hard disks when I have them mounted (the external ones are not always turned on) should be on the top right corner of my screen. I have done this for the past 40 years and it has always worked. It stopped working and I started to experience this problem with the two previous version of mac OS and now the third one which is Tahoe.

Answering your question, yes the drive icon will move on its own. Sometimes it moves when I shut down or restart my computer. Sometimes it does it when I lock my screen in case I am going to leave my computer turned on overnight.

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Answer 9

Dec 8, 2025 12:06 PM in response to apple_customer

Very odd. My internal HD icon never moves. Sometimes an external SSD icon will have moved at wake-up to be closer to the top right, if I had it lower down and there's space at the top of the column, below the internal drive.

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Answer 10

Dec 8, 2025 10:37 AM in response to apple_customer

You're right, if you were to sort by kind it would rearrange everything, so in your situation this would not help.

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