How do I tell Open Firmware to wipe the hd:\?
I want to try because a non-programmer technician at a public school
district of Wa****ngton state recently found us here with a search
like:
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.forth.mac/search?group=comp.lang.forth.mac&q=wipe
The school has leftover iMac's with dead cd:\ that also do not boot
from USB, e.g., don't boot PPC Linux from a USB Flash Drive.
Googling then correctly suggests we could trivially modify my own:
http://members.aol.com/plforth/moforth/20020315/ofblock.txt
Anyone here want to help?
....
I haven't written any Open Firmware in years! I mis/remember that
wiping the first block after somehow loading ofblock looks like this:
0 to lba
block-size to data-length
dwr .
I guess what we really want is a couple of short programs.
One program to wipe the hd:\. preferably reprinting its progress in a
single line as it goes, like with a |/-\ progress wheel and bar or
percent or countdown.
A second program to scan the hd:\ and count where and how many nonzero
blocks found, again preferably reprinting its progress and ***ulative
result as it goes.
Then we could run a scan and a wipe and a scan and be confident that
we have wiped all of what we care about.
Anyone here got a Mac you're willing to smash?
....
Me finding the guts to try running the code myself might be a little
difficult. I need to find my way to a Mac old enough to run Open
Firmware that is not now in service.
Probably my next first step will be remembering how to load ofblock.
I mis/remember the web nearby has instructions, either right there or
close by at my own patch to get ofpong running again to boot Pong in
place of Mac OS.
I could at least write and run the scan program, and I could debug the
wipe program by reading instead of writing so that then someone else
would just substitute write for read to try it.
I probably can do all this myself, it's just work enough that I'd
appreciate the help if by chance anyone here does want to help.
....
Thanks in advance,
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