How can I restore the hard drive icon on my MacBook Pro?

On my MacBook Pro 11,4 mid 2015 15" Retina display, I recently went on an icon rampage and changed the icons for all the drives connected, and the internal hard drive.


Today, all the drives still have their icons except the internal hard drive/startup disk, which has no icon at all. The drive is still present on the desktop - the name for it is still there, and if I click on it, the full drive area gets selected inclusive of the space reserved for an icon. If I double-click, it launches the finder for it just fine (if I click on the name portion. clicking on the ghost icon area does nothing, its not active).


When I try to replace the custom icon with get info, I cannot because the empty icon spot is in fact also "empty" in the I can't click on nothing in that little square to select it and put something else there.


I also cannot resuscitate the default system icon for the drive, because that method also requires going into "get info", selecting an icon, and choosing "cut".


Since I cannot select the icon in "get info", I cannot either add nor return to default icon.


Anyone have any ideas for this?


This computer is running 11.7.10 Big Sur.


[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: hard drive icon missing, but the ghost/title still there

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 11.7

Posted on Jun 9, 2025 12:18 PM

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1 reply

Jun 12, 2025 1:10 PM in response to schelry

With "Get Info" from the drive, click where the icon would normally appear on the upper left area of the "Get Info" window. Then press the Delete key.....you should be prompted to confirm with your admin password. I tested this on macOS 14.x Sonoma.


While I was experimenting trying to find where the icon file was placed, I used an improper image file and ended up with no visible icon in "Get Info". These instructions worked in that scenario as well.

How can I restore the hard drive icon on my MacBook Pro?

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