Performa 550 and Recovery Partition

[Dandu]

Hi

I have a question : i search a person with a Performa 550 and the original hard drive.

Actually, i have found an article on a book who say

"MACINTOSH SECRET: THE LC 550’S SECRET PARTITION
If Apple’s programmers, in creating the Performa series, were aiming to make idiot-proof computers, they were serious about it. The Performa 550 is an amazing case in point. When you run the included Apple Backup program (…) you get a little surprise that you didn’t count on: a hidden partition on your hard drive ! This invisible chunk of hard drive space contains a miniature, invisible System Folder. Apples internal memo explains it this way : “When a system problem (one that prevents the Performa from booting) is detected, a [dialog box] informs the user of a system problem. The user can choose to fix the problem manually or to reinstall software from the backup partition’s Mini System Folder.”.

If you choose to reinstall your System software, you get the wristwatch cursor for a moment while the miniature System Folder is silently copied to your main hard-drive partition. The Performa restarts from the restored hard drive, and the invisible system partition disappears once again. We got a Performa team member to admit that this kind of sneaky save-the-users-from-themselves approach may well be adopted in other Performa models. Who knows what goodness lurks in the hearts of men ?"

I have tried to restore the software with emulators and another Mac (i have not a Performa 550) but after many try, i have an hard disk with an hidden "Apple_recovery" partition but... nothing inside.

And i have found an old memo from Apple who say

"However, the partition will be lost if the hard drive is re-formatted."

So, i search a person with a Performa 550 and the original drive

And if it's possible, a disk image from the drive, to try to test that.

 

[dougg3]

I just thought I'd bump this thread since @Dandu didn't receive any responses originally, and add some new info. Here is his blog post about the partition. Does anyone out there have a Performa 550 that has never been reformatted, and would be willing to dump the hard drive to see if the recovery partition is there? It would be really cool to preserve this hidden partition. I haven't figured out how to use any of the Performa software to fully create it, so I have a feeling it was something programmed from the factory.

My family actually had a Performa 550 (early caddy loading model with the sticker under the CD drive) when I was growing up, and I have a faint recollection of seeing a recovery screen as a kid. I somehow managed to screw up the computer completely until we were able to restore it with a CD that came with a newer Performa 550 (tray loading model). The caddy loading model didn't come with a restore CD.

I've found a little more proof about this hidden recovery partition in a few of Apple's old tech notes:

This tech note explains the partition and says that if a problem with the system folder occurs, a dialog pops up and gives the user the opportunity to restore a mini system folder from the backup partition. It does claim that Apple Backup is what creates the partition, but I think that's incorrect, unless there was a special version of Apple Backup bundled with these computers. I haven't found any code in Apple Backup that creates it, at least in the version that is on the restore CD.

This tech note talks about some sort of incompatibility between the backup partition and a Dinosaur Safari CD from Creative Multimedia, and mentions that the options you get when the recovery partition kicks in are Continue or Shutdown.

Things I've discovered:

• The Performa 500 series 7.1P6 restore CD on Macintosh Garden actually has a custom version of Apple HD SC Setup (7.2.2P6). If you format your drive with it, it automatically creates a 2560 KB hidden partition at the end of the drive of type Apple_Recovery.
  • 
• If you manually change it to be Apple_HFS instead of Apple_Recovery with a hex editor, it actually shows up on the desktop with the volume name "Recovery Volume". But it's empty. So nothing is populating its contents.
  • 
• The Restore All Software and Restore System Software apps on the restore CD don't put anything onto it.
• I haven't been able to get Apple Backup to copy anything to it either.
• If I manually populate the Recovery Volume with a minimal system folder and then change its type back to Apple_Recovery, I can actually get it to boot from the recovery partition if I goof up the main partition's system folder. For example, drag the System file out of the System Folder and reboot. It boots from the minimal system folder on the recovery partition instead, and Recovery Volume shows up on the desktop as the main boot volume.
  • 
• Then if I fix the System Folder on the original Hard Disk partition and reboot, the Recovery Volume becomes invisible again and it boots up normally.
  • 
• So all we're missing is whatever the factory contents were on the partition, which likely contained the software responsible for showing the message with the Continue and Shutdown options, and copying the minimal system folder back to the main hard drive partition.

I've had multiple people tell me they think I'm wrong or confused about this partition existing, but I don't think I am. Why would Apple have tech notes about it if it didn't exist? It's just nobody (to my knowledge) has preserved it, and it was invisible so people didn't know it was there. Sadly, although I still have the original 160 MB Quantum hard drive out of my childhood Performa 550, it was reformatted long ago when I reused it in my Quadra 840av. Plus, I think it was reformatted when it needed to be fixed the first time.

I've actually tried playing the hard drive lottery on eBay to try to find it. I've bought a few Quantum ProDrive ELS drives that were clearly taken from a 5xx style case, but all I have to show for it is a hard drive from a Mac TV, and a hard drive from an Amiga Falcon that somehow ended up with LC 5xx mounting hardware on it. The second one is my own fault; I should have known that since it didn't have the Apple sticker it wasn't really an Apple drive.

Why do I care so much about this? I dunno...I just think it would be cool to see it in action! It's like solving a mystery.

 

[dougg3]

Amiga Falcon

My edit window expired, but I meant to say Atari Falcon here. Completely irrelevant to this thread, but had to correct myself!

 

[nathall]

Not just a mystery, but it’s a piece if history that should be preserved. I wasn’t aware of this functionality. I’ve seen those partitions before, but didn’t know what they were for.

 

[alectrona6400]

did the apple software restore CD for the performa 550 seriously come with mario teaches typing??? thats hilarious. also some very interesting stuff, not sure if other apple computers have this (mainly performa i suppose). reminds me of those recovery partitions on windows machines from the 2000s that had XP on them (blegh! not my favorite, sorry), and a bunch of crapware thats difficult to get off.

 

[dougg3]

did the apple software restore CD for the performa 550 seriously come with mario teaches typing??? thats hilarious.

Definitely -- it originally came bundled with this model. I used to love playing Mario Teaches Typing both at home and at school! Speaking of bundled software, I know that my family's caddy-loading Performa 550 also came with Monopoly, but this restore CD didn't include it. The restore CD was bundled with my aunt's later tray-loading model which also didn't have Monopoly, so I know they tweaked the bundled software at some point.

It also makes me wonder if this recovery partition was there on all Performa 550s, or only the earlier ones, or only the later ones.

not sure if other apple computers have this (mainly performa i suppose)

Yeah, I'm not aware of any others. I dumped a Performa 450's original hard drive recently and it didn't have the recovery partition, but did have the original 7.1P2 software, so I think it might have even been a 550-only thing. I'm also curious if the 57x series had it.

 

[dougg3]

A kind soul on Reddit let me borrow a hard drive out of a Performa 550. After I got it working (which will probably be a video all on its own for future reference for people with old Conner hard drives that don't work) and dumped it, look what I found:

 

[Arbee]

Ooh, interesting!

 

[dougg3]

I also bought a copy of the Dinosaur Safari CD that Apple mentioned in the second technote I linked, and used MAME to reproduce the bug they were talking about. As soon as you launch it, the machine reboots and up pops this message. I'm interested in looking deeper to understand how/why that happened.

The drive's main partition also contained evidence that the previous owner had run into this Mini System Folder message in the past. On the desktop there was a Mini System Folder with no Finder inside, and the trash contained another file that comes from the recovery partition. I have a funny feeling that this functionality had a tendency to annoy people more than it helped, but I guess I don't know for sure. Now I'm curious if the 575 also came with it, or if it was 550-only.

The Performa this came from was a newer one with the tray-loading CD drive, by the way.

 

[volvo242gt]

IIRC, the 450, etc, came with a modified Disk Tools disk, which I do happen to have (and used to boot my IIfx when the 7.6 Disk Tools 1 disk stopped working recently). Has the same desktop pattern, and different names for the Disk First Aid & HD SC Setup applications.

 

[dougg3]

IIRC, the 450, etc, came with a modified Disk Tools disk, which I do happen to have

Ah yes, are you thinking of the Utilities disk? I still have this one, which came with a caddy-loading Performa 550.



It doesn't have special names for those two programs, but it's definitely a Performa-specific thing. Here's a screenshot of booting from it:

 

[volvo242gt]

I think they must've reverted back to normal filenames by the time 7.1P5 came out.

 

[dougg3]

I think they must've reverted back to normal filenames by the time 7.1P5 came out.

If you have an earlier disk, I'd love to see the contents of it if you'd be willing to share!

 

[volvo242gt]

I'll boot the machine up this weekend and get a photo...

 

[dougg3]

Thanks! I've been on a bit of a kick about seeing original Performa stuff, and I'm very curious!

 

[crazyben]

Is this partition specific to 550 or 575 had it too?

 

[dougg3]

Is this partition specific to 550 or 575 had it too?

I'm extremely curious about that as well. If anyone has a 575 that has never been formatted and has the ability to dump the hard drive with a ZuluSCSI or BlueSCSI in initiator mode, I'd love to take a look.

By the way, I'm still working on sharing the partition content with everybody. I just need some free time to get everything organized. One little tidbit: the 550 that had the recovery partition was manufactured in January of 1994. The recovery partition has a creation timestamp in March of 1994. It also was the last partition in the partition map even though it was physically before the Apple_Free partition. To me, that means the hard drive started out with a bigger Apple_Free partition with no recovery partition, and then the recovery partition was created later by shrinking the free partition upward.

That might give some credence to what Apple's technote said about Apple Backup being responsible for creating it. Unfortunately, whoever owned the computer deleted Apple Backup from the hard drive, so if there's some special version of Apple Backup out there that's capable of creating the recovery partition, I haven't seen it with my own eyes yet. The version on the 7.1P6 500 series recovery CD definitely doesn't create it.

To tide everyone over, here's another screenshot of how it looks when you boot up after it recovers

 

[Mk.558]

This is fascinating stuff! I admire your dedication and drive to sort this stuff out.

Is there anything in the ROM that can kick this off too or is it part of the 7.1Px system code?

 

[dougg3]

This is fascinating stuff! I admire your dedication and drive to sort this stuff out.

Thanks! As soon as @Dandu mentioned that this existed, I knew I just had to find it. I didn't want it to be lost forever. And as these hard drives age and go bad due to gooey rubber or whatever else, it's only going to get harder and harder to find working ones. So I knew time was of the essence.

Is there anything in the ROM that can kick this off too or is it part of the 7.1Px system code?

I haven't done a deep dive into how exactly the mechanism works yet, but I don't think it's anything custom in the ROM. The recovery mechanism also works perfectly if I boot the drive image on a IIci for example.

It might just be the normal Mac boot process observing that the main partition is unbootable, and then happening to notice that there's another bootable volume on the drive and using it instead. I'll have to see if there's anything special about 7.1P6 in particular that adds support for it.

Apple did say that 7.1P6 is when the functionality was added: https://apple.fandom.com/wiki/System_7.1P6

 

[volvo242gt]

Thanks! I've been on a bit of a kick about seeing original Performa stuff, and I'm very curious!

Looks like the only file that's named differently is Apple HD SC Setup. On this disk, it's called Internal HD Format.