Three methods of disabling OS 9 booting

Feb 19, '03 09:13:00AM

Contributed by: Anonymous

Three methods to prevent your machine from booting OS 9...

Method One - Using Disk Utility:
Format the hard drive without OS 9 Drivers.

Method Two - Using diskutil from command line:
Leave out the <OS9Drivers> option! For example:

diskutil partitionDisk <Device Node> <numberOfPartitions> \
  <bootable> HFS+ Disk1 <size>G HFS+ Disk2 <size>G ...
where <DeviceNode> = /dev/disk0, /dev/disk1, etc [robg adds: Line break added for readability]. To get more info type sudo diskutil partitionDisk.

[robg adds: The remainder of the article details a third method for removing the OS 9 driver partition from an existing drive. This is not for the faint of heart, and the making an error would probably lead to a pretty bad outcome. In addition, I'm not 100% positive why you would wish to prevent OS 9 booting on a machine that is capable of doing so (security reasons?). But as my main role here is to provide information for those who may wish to know, here you go. Consider yourself warned before proceeding! Have you hugged your backup today?!]

Method Three - Using pdisk on already formatted, partitioned disk to delete OS 9 driver partitions.

step 1:
Unmount all volumes associated with the device to be edited

step 2:
Edit the partition map deleting Apple Driver and Apple Patches partitons. In the terminal, type sudo pdisk and use the following sample to help guide the process:

Top level command (? for help):e (type e and hit return)
Name of device:/dev/disk0 (type device and hit return)
Command (? for help):p (type p and hit return)
(sample output)
/dev/disk0  map block size=512
   #:                 type name                 length   base     ( size )
   1:  Apple_partition_map Apple                    63 @ 1       
   2:       Apple_Driver43*Macintosh                56 @ 64      
   3:       Apple_Driver43*Macintosh                56 @ 120     
   4:     Apple_Driver_ATA*Macintosh                56 @ 176     
   5:     Apple_Driver_ATA*Macintosh                56 @ 232     
   6:       Apple_FWDriver Macintosh               512 @ 288     
   7:   Apple_Driver_IOKit Macintosh               512 @ 800     
   8:        Apple_Patches Patch Partition         512 @ 1312    
   9:            Apple_HFS PBG4 1             17251680 @ 1824     (  8.2G)
  10:            Apple_HFS PBG4 2             29627888 @ 17253504 ( 14.1G)
  11:            Apple_HFS OSX                29627888 @ 46881392 ( 14.1G)
  12:            Apple_HFS Classic            17249832 @ 76509280 (  8.2G)
  13:           Apple_Free                           0+@ 93759112

Device block size=512, Number of Blocks=93759120
DeviceType=0x0, DeviceId=0x0
Drivers-
1: @ 64 for 23, type=0x1
2: @ 120 for 36, type=0xffff
3: @ 176 for 21, type=0x701
4: @ 232 for 34, type=0xf8ff

Command (? for help): d (type d and hit return)
Partition Number: 2 (type 2 and hit return)
are you sure you want to delete this driver> [n/y]: y (type y and hit return)

Command (? for help): d (type d and hit return)
Partition Number: 3 (type 3 and hit return)
are you sure you want to delete this driver> [n/y]: y (type y and hit return)
Repeat the d command with partition 3 six times. This is because driver partitions will actually get deleted and consolidated into a single free partition at partition 2. In other words the number of partitions will be changed each time partition is deleted. Use the p command each time to get a new list of partitions)
Command (? for help):p (type p and hit return)
(Verify that your partiton table looks something like this:)
/dev/disk0  map block size=512
   #:                 type name                 length   base     ( size )
   1:  Apple_partition_map Apple                    63 @ 1       
   2:             Apple_Free Extra                  1760 @ 64      
   3:            Apple_HFS PBG4 1             17251680 @ 1824     (  8.2G)
   4:            Apple_HFS PBG4 2             29627888 @ 17253504 ( 14.1G)
   5:            Apple_HFS OSX                29627888 @ 46881392 ( 14.1G)
   6:            Apple_HFS Classic            17249832 @ 76509280 (  8.2G)
   7:           Apple_Free                           0+@ 93759112

Device block size=512, Number of Blocks=93759120
DeviceType=0x0, DeviceId=0x0
Now write the new partition map. Do not write the map unless you are sure you haven't accidentally deleted partition 1, or any of the Apple_HFS columes. If you make a mistake, type q instead of w and start the whole process again.
Command (? for help): w (type w and hit return)
Writing the map destroys what was there before. Is that okay [n/y]: y (type y and hit return)
The partition table has been altered

Command (? for help):q (type q and hit return)
Top Level Command (? for help):q (type q and hit return)
Your disks should automount as soon as you leave the pdisk program. OS 9 booting will no longer be possible from any volume on the affected device.

Comments (9)


Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=2003021213104369