LC with "FoolProof Control", how to reformat the drive?

[geokov]

Hello,

I recently received an old Macintosh LC in pretty bad shape from a gentleman with a Macintosh hoard. I recapped the PSU and got it working and then recapped the board. I was pretty pumped to try it out so I booted it up only to find that it must have belonged to a school and therefore has a program installed that locks everything on the system except a typing program called "All the Right Type" lol. There are no files on the computer, it was hooked up to a server so there is nothing private for me to access, I just want to wipe the drive and install some games. I have tried everything I could think of to be able to wipe the drive but nothing has worked so far. I have an external BlueSCSI so I booted from that but I can't erase the offending HD that way either. The program is called "FoolProof Control".

Thanks

 

[Phipli]

Hello,

I recently received an old Macintosh LC in pretty bad shape from a gentleman with a Macintosh hoard. I recapped the PSU and got it working and then recapped the board. I was pretty pumped to try it out so I booted it up only to find that it must have belonged to a school and therefore has a program installed that locks everything on the system except a typing program called "All the Right Type" lol. There are no files on the computer, it was hooked up to a server so there is nothing private for me to access, I just want to wipe the drive and install some games. I have tried everything I could think of to be able to wipe the drive but nothing has worked so far. I have an external BlueSCSI so I booted from that but I can't erase the offending HD that way either. The program is called "FoolProof Control".

Thanks

Is there a jumper on some pins labelled W1 on the logic board? This is worth answering before following the next instructions.

The following should only be done if your disk is locked by a custom driver, or if your disk has a corrupt disk driver that crashes your computer before you can format it.

If anyone knows another way to stop the driver executing during boot, please tell me as this way breaks the rules of safe SCSI use!

On the other hand... I have recovered multiple disks that both crashed the computer near the start of booting, or when the computer tried to mount it, so... yeah. Your milage may vary.

It is possible the drive has a custom disk driver on it as a way of running code even when you don't boot from it. I'm going to suggest a horrible nasty last resort that I would never normally say.

1. Unplug the power from the hard disk.
2. Boot from your external drive (make sure you don't have SCSI ID conflicts) with a copy of the Apple HD SC Setup program available.
3. Plug in the internal hard disk power. It will spin up, but won't mount.
4. Launch Apple HD SC Setup (don't quit out or it will mount the disk and load the driver and you'll have to start again), click "Drive" until it shows the internal disk (should be ID 0 for an internal disk), then click Initialize and follow onscreen instructions to completely wipe the disk.

Let us know how it goes.

It is never good to power on a SCSI device after booting, but it is the only way I know to stop the driver loading.

 

[NJRoadfan]

SmartStuff FoolProof Security uses a custom disk driver. The "protection" was broken long ago going by a quick search. A program with that name was just asking to be hacked. I manged to bypass the Windows version quite easily due to extensive bugs in the shell hooks it used in Windows 9x.

 

[geokov]

SmartStuff FoolProof Security uses a custom disk driver. The "protection" was broken long ago going by a quick search. A program with that name was just asking to be hacked. I manged to bypass the Windows version quite easily due to extensive bugs in the shell hooks it used in Windows 9x.

I have searched and have not found the way to get around it on an old Mac LC running OS 7.5.3

 

[geokov]

Is there a jumper on some pins labelled W1 on the logic board? This is worth answering before following the next instructions.

The following should only be done if your disk is locked by a custom driver, or if your disk has a corrupt disk driver that crashes your computer before you can format it.

If anyone knows another way to stop the driver executing during boot, please tell me as this way breaks the rules of safe SCSI use!

On the other hand... I have recovered multiple disks that both crashed the computer near the start of booting, or when the computer tried to mount it, so... yeah. Your milage may vary.

It is possible the drive has a custom disk driver on it as a way of running code even when you don't boot from it. I'm going to suggest a horrible nasty last resort that I would never normally say.

1. Unplug the power from the hard disk.
2. Boot from your external drive (make sure you don't have SCSI ID conflicts) with a copy of the Apple HD SC Setup program available.
3. Plug in the internal hard disk power. It will spin up, but won't mount.
4. Launch Apple HD SC Setup (don't quit out or it will mount the disk and load the driver and you'll have to start again), click "Drive" until it shows the internal disk (should be ID 0 for an internal disk), then click Initialize and follow onscreen instructions to completely wipe the disk.

Let us know how it goes.

It is never good to power on a SCSI device after booting, but it is the only way I know to stop the driver loading.

I'm going to give it a try.

 

[geokov]

Is there a jumper on some pins labelled W1 on the logic board? This is worth answering before following the next instructions.

The following should only be done if your disk is locked by a custom driver, or if your disk has a corrupt disk driver that crashes your computer before you can format it.

If anyone knows another way to stop the driver executing during boot, please tell me as this way breaks the rules of safe SCSI use!

On the other hand... I have recovered multiple disks that both crashed the computer near the start of booting, or when the computer tried to mount it, so... yeah. Your milage may vary.

It is possible the drive has a custom disk driver on it as a way of running code even when you don't boot from it. I'm going to suggest a horrible nasty last resort that I would never normally say.

1. Unplug the power from the hard disk.
2. Boot from your external drive (make sure you don't have SCSI ID conflicts) with a copy of the Apple HD SC Setup program available.
3. Plug in the internal hard disk power. It will spin up, but won't mount.
4. Launch Apple HD SC Setup (don't quit out or it will mount the disk and load the driver and you'll have to start again), click "Drive" until it shows the internal disk (should be ID 0 for an internal disk), then click Initialize and follow onscreen instructions to completely wipe the disk.

Let us know how it goes.

It is never good to power on a SCSI device after booting, but it is the only way I know to stop the driver loading.

Hi, it eventually worked. I loaded an image of the Apple Legacy Software Recovery CD on my external BlueSCSI and tried HD SC Setup but I got the message that the disk was not able to be initialized. I then tried "Drive Setup 1.5 which did the trick. Then I installed the system software from the same the Apple Legacy Software Recovery CD. Currently installing Arkanoid. Thank you.

No jumper on the board.

 

[Phipli]

HD SC Setup but I got the message that the disk was not able to be initialized. I then tried "Drive Setup 1.5 which did the trick.

Weird, Apple HD SC Setup is usually the more reliable of the two on that era of machine. Glad you got it working. Have fun

Make sure you install Prince of Persia, Glider, Lemmings and Oxyd.

 

[geokov]

Oxyd! I forgot about that one, it was a family favourite.

 

[Arbee]

If it was a non-Apple replacement drive (or an Apple drive that was much newer) I could see Drive Setup being more likely to work.

 

[Phipli]

If it was a non-Apple replacement drive (or an Apple drive that was much newer) I could see Drive Setup being more likely to work.

Drive Setup is just as picky on SCSI drives (but Apple never put restrictions on IDE) but then often fails to format things properly in IIcis and older. I guessed it was an Apple drive, which was probably a little presumptuous of me. I'd have just suggested Silverlining Lite if it hadn't worked though.

 

[olePigeon]

@geokov ... and Solarian II, Spin Doctor, Short Circuit, Loony Labyrinth, Color Dark Castle, ...

 

[geokov]

@geokov ... and Solarian II, Spin Doctor, Short Circuit, Loony Labyrinth, Color Dark Castle, ...

Yes!