On a desktop PC, you can often tell which hard drive is booting by looking at the activity light on the front of your computer case. The activity light on the hard drive that is currently being accessed will be blinking. In some cases, you may not be able to see the activity lights because they are covered by other components in your computer case.

If you are using a laptop, then there will be no LED lights to tell you which drive is accessing data. Instead, if you see an icon for each drive on your desktop or in Windows Explorer (Windows) or Finder (Mac), then you can use this information to determine which drive is being accessed and booting up your computer.

If you do not see any icons for drives in Windows Explorer or Finder, then you will need to open Disk Management and look at the status of each drive.

Last modified: September 18, 2022