deleting system of external hdd

[optijaz]

I have an external hard drive with a bootable copy of Mac OS X on it but want to delete it and all the other associated files with out formating the drive because have other files that need to keep.

I've tried just deleting however OS X doesn't let me do it and says I don't have permissions to do it althought I'm admin on my iBook.

How do I go about getting rid of a copy of the system on my external hard drive?

[Phil Of Mac]

Originally posted by optijaz
I have an external hard drive with a bootable copy of Mac OS X on it but want to delete it and all the other associated files with out formating the drive because have other files that need to keep.

I've tried just deleting however OS X doesn't let me do it and says I don't have permissions to do it althought I'm admin on my iBook.

How do I go about getting rid of a copy of the system on my external hard drive?

Using the Terminal, navigate to the hard drive and type:

sudo rm -R System

to remove the Mac OS X 'System' directory.

[benixau]

DO NOT DO THE ABOVE ON YOUR MAIN HDD

DO NOT DO THE ABOVE ON YOUR MAIN HDD

DO NOT DO THE ABOVE ON YOUR MAIN HDD

DO NOT DO THE ABOVE ON YOUR MAIN HDD

DO NOT DO THE ABOVE ON YOUR MAIN HDD

get the msg?

DO NOT DO THE ABOVE ON YOUR MAIN HDD

just to be sure

[Phil Of Mac]

Originally posted by benixau
DO NOT DO THE ABOVE ON YOUR MAIN HDD

DO NOT DO THE ABOVE ON YOUR MAIN HDD

DO NOT DO THE ABOVE ON YOUR MAIN HDD

DO NOT DO THE ABOVE ON YOUR MAIN HDD

DO NOT DO THE ABOVE ON YOUR MAIN HDD

get the msg?

DO NOT DO THE ABOVE ON YOUR MAIN HDD

just to be sure

Awww, why not?

You're no fun :D

Yes, do this on the hard drive where you actually want to delete your system!

[optijaz]

Well I'm not very familiar with terminal stuff, could you list some more info or where to go to get it.

Is there any GUI app that does it?

(I realized that you probably wouldn't want to do that to your main hard drive!)

[crazzyeddie]

I think the easiest way to do this is to log in as the root user. The root user can move/edit/delete any file on the hard drive.

To enable the root users go into the Netinfo Manager (/Applications/Utilities/Netinfo Manager). Then go to the Security menu, and enable root user. Enter your password and youre all set.

After you enable the root user, go to the login screen and for the user name, type root, and the password is what you set it as.

Then open the external hard drive in the Finder, and delete the Library and System folders. Also, if you can see some other files like mach_kernel delete those too.

[optijaz]

Thanks crazyeddie, that work with no problems, and thanks to everyone for their tips. :)