I do not know how to delete OS 9 that came preinstalled with my iBook 700. I have no use for OS 9 and it's just taking up space on my hard drive. I tried to just drag the OS 9 system folder to trash but even after setting permissions it still said it's being used by the system and could not be deleted. Can anyone tell me how to delete it?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Deleting OS 9 from OS X
- Thread starter _The_Man_
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
This is how I did it on my iBook about a year ago. However, you must be VERY careful with this method... it could screw up your system severely if not done correctly! For that reason, I recommend not doing this method if you're uncomfortable with the possible outcomes from the mistakes and waiting until someone posts an alternative way. However, if you ARE comfortable...
Open up the Terminal.
Type in the following:
cd /
sudo rm -rf "System Folder"
Exactly like that, quotes and everything. You will be prompted for a password after entering the last line.
This deletes everything, without question, from "System Folder" which is your Mac OS 9 folder. Making a slight mistake and entering rm -rf "System" will delete your entire OS X system folder! So once again, I advise being extremely careful with this method, and finding an alternative if you are uncomfortable with it.
Open up the Terminal.
Type in the following:
cd /
sudo rm -rf "System Folder"
Exactly like that, quotes and everything. You will be prompted for a password after entering the last line.
This deletes everything, without question, from "System Folder" which is your Mac OS 9 folder. Making a slight mistake and entering rm -rf "System" will delete your entire OS X system folder! So once again, I advise being extremely careful with this method, and finding an alternative if you are uncomfortable with it.
[edit: looks like bwawn beat me to it, and his way of doing it is probably better unless you have Terminal-ophobia 
]
Firstly (and obviously) make sure Classic isn't running.
Also, did you try logging in as root? If you don't have a root account, it's pretty simple to create one using NetInfo Manager (in your Applications-->Utilities folder).
If you got your Mac in 2002 or earlier, you can start up from an OS 9 CD, and I'm pretty sure you could delete the 9 system folder from there, without having to deal with OS X permissions and such.
Good luck.
--Fred
]Firstly (and obviously) make sure Classic isn't running.
Also, did you try logging in as root? If you don't have a root account, it's pretty simple to create one using NetInfo Manager (in your Applications-->Utilities folder).
If you got your Mac in 2002 or earlier, you can start up from an OS 9 CD, and I'm pretty sure you could delete the 9 system folder from there, without having to deal with OS X permissions and such.
Good luck.
--Fred
hmmm i didnt know i could do that. i always take the trouble to do the 'sudo rm -rf System\ Folder/' action...which gets really annoying with odd characters and such
thx for the inadvertent advice
Hmm... I think you're right on this one, and you do need the \ before the space, otherwise it'll treat "Folder" as an argument, and not as part of the name of "System Folder" which could be a real problem if Folder is a valid argument.
Just do a Get Info on your System Folder and that'll tell you roughly how much you'll save. In my case it's around 250 MB. I've actually removed 9 in the past because I never used it, then almost immediately ran into several situations where I needed it back! So I've reinstalled it now, and I just keep it there, whether I'm using it or not (250 megs is better than waiting 10 mins for it to install)