how do i view the contents of the hard drive?

The following may help: Get to know the Finder on your Mac - Apple Support

It would help if you were to tell us precisely what it is that you want to do or to see. One way is to open About This Mac under the Apple logo. The window that opens has a System Report button. Click on that. Then go down the left column to Software and click on to Applications just below that. Be patient, it takes some time to open. It will give you a comprehensive report of what is installed along with details about each app. That same column has a number of other useful reports you can generate.