{"id":6689,"date":"2016-08-07T21:44:38","date_gmt":"2016-08-07T21:44:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/t.help.cleverfiles.com\/?p=6689"},"modified":"2025-10-30T14:50:52","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T14:50:52","slug":"hardware-disks-icons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cleverfiles.com\/help\/hardware-disks-icons\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Do Icons for Disks Differ From Icons for Logical Drives?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"key_definitions_quick_primer\"><\/span><b>Key Definitions (Quick Primer)<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Hardware (physical) disk \/ device<\/b>. The actual storage hardware you can hold in your hand: internal SSD\/HDD, external USB drive, NVMe, SATA SSD, memory card, etc. It exposes blocks\/sectors (typically 512B or 4096B logical sectors).<\/li>\n<li><b>Partition map \/ partition table<\/b>. The low\u2011level map on a disk that defines where partitions live: GPT (modern), MBR (legacy). On Macs, GPT is standard.<\/li>\n<li><b>Logical drive \/ volume<\/b>. A storage construct that lives on top of a device (or multiple devices). Examples: <a href=\"\/help\/what-is-apfs-apple.html\">APFS<\/a> or <a href=\"\/help\/hfs-recovery.html\">HFS+<\/a> volumes on macOS; NTFS\/FAT\/exFAT volumes on Windows; <a href=\"\/help\/raid-recovery\/\">RAID<\/a>\/LVM\/Storage Spaces virtual volumes; encrypted containers. A single physical disk can host several volumes. Conversely, one logical volume can span multiple physical disks (e.g., <a href=\"\/help\/fusion-drive-disk-drill-mac.html\">Fusion Drive<\/a>, dynamic\/pooled volumes). On macOS with APFS, volumes share space inside a container instead of using fixed\u2011size partitions.<\/li>\n<li><b>File system<\/b>. The structure that stores files\/folders on a volume (APFS, HFS+, <a href=\"\/help\/can-i-recover-a-specific-file-with-disk-drill\/#ntfs_fs\">NTFS<\/a>, <a href=\"\/help\/can-i-recover-a-specific-file-with-disk-drill\/#exfat_fs\">exFAT<\/a>, <a href=\"\/help\/can-i-recover-a-specific-file-with-disk-drill\/#fat_fs\">FAT32<\/a>, etc.).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"post-relative post-download\">\r\n<i class=\"box-60x36 icons icon-winmac-xs  \"><\/i>\r\nDownload Disk Drill data recovery app\r\n<a class=\"btn btn-primary btn-xs-block pull-right\" href=\"\/\/www.cleverfiles.com\/dl.html\">Download now<\/a>\r\n<div class=\"clearfix\"><\/div>\r\n<\/div><p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"how_disk_drill_represents_devices_vs_volumes_icon_guide\"><\/span><b>How Disk Drill Represents Devices vs. Volumes (Icon Guide)<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"1_native_os_icons_default\"><\/span><b>1) Native OS Icons (Default)<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Disk Drill adopts the same icon you\u2019d see in your OS:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>macOS examples<\/b>: internal vs. external vs. removable disk icons. For instance, Finder commonly shows orange icons for external disks and white for removable devices; Disk Drill mirrors that behavior.<\/li>\n<li><b>Windows examples<\/b>: drive icons for fixed, removable; BitLocker\/volume states may appear with OS\u2011provided overlays.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"2_when_disk_drill_uses_custom_icons\"><\/span><b>2) When Disk Drill Uses Custom Icons<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Disk Drill introduces a small, neutral set of custom icons only when:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The OS doesn\u2019t supply a meaningful icon for the target (e.g., certain RAW\/uninitialized devices, reconstructed\/lost partitions, or composite sources).<\/li>\n<li>The item is Disk Drill\u2013specific, such as <a href=\"\/help\/dmg-iso-backup.html\">Byte\u2011to\u2011Byte Backup<\/a> images (backup files default to the <code>.dd<\/code> or <code>.dmg<\/code> extension)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<div class=\"alert alert-info\" role=\"alert\">\n  &#x2139;&#xfe0f;&#xfe0f; <b>Goal of the design<\/b>: Reduce cognitive friction by matching Finder\/Explorer wherever possible\u2014then add minimal, consistent custom visuals only for edge cases and Disk Drill\u2013specific features.\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key Definitions (Quick Primer) Hardware (physical) disk \/ device. The actual storage hardware you can hold in your hand: internal SSD\/HDD, external USB drive, NVMe, SATA SSD, memory card, etc. It exposes blocks\/sectors (typically 512B or 4096B logical sectors). Partition [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6689","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-understanding"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why Do Icons for Disks Differ From Icons for Logical Drives?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn why Disk Drill shows different icons for hardware disks vs. logical volumes on macOS and Windows, and which item you should scan for data recovery.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cleverfiles.com\/help\/hardware-disks-icons\/\" 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