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TICKET ARCHIVE -> HD volume will not fully erase.

HelloMac - May 22, 2008 - 12:28 pm

Using Disk Utility, Erase, Zero out, my single partition HD will not completely erase.

I've attempted it at least seven times over ther past two months under the direction of AppleCare and my local Apple Genius.

The hardware has been completely check out by Apple tech within the past month.

At the end of the erase procedure I'm presented with a HD volume with the new name and am told that there are three folder and three files on the disc using 107 meg of space. It's the same each time.

I continue to have problems with the system with unknown users being able to make changes to my computer and access files via the internet.

How can I nuke those remaining three files?

A full explantation is in the Unix forum: http://macosx.com/forums/unix-x11/30...l-leopard.html

DeltaMac - May 22, 2008 - 3:19 pm

When I completely erase (remove the partition, then erase) on a 40GB hard drive, I have 4 folders with 8 files, and taking up 35 MB space. It's not unreasonable to see 100 MB space taken on a blank, newly formatted drive. It's space taken up by the formatting and directory setup process, and does not indicate something left-over from a previous install. That's in Tiger (OS X 10.4.11). If I format with Leopard, I get a blank hard drive with 9 folders (which are not accessible, by the way). How do you end up with only 3 folders?

The _only_ way that you can have users from the outside accessing your system, is if you allow it. It's a Mac, after all.
Go to your Security pref pane, and turn on your Firewall, choosing the setting to 'Allow only essential services'
Go to your Sharing pref pane, and make sure that no sharing services are selected.
Those 2 things will pretty much lock you down from outside.
Download and run 'Little Snitch'. That's software that will tell you if your Mac is communicating to the outside world, and will help you realize if your Mac is attempting that without your knowledge.
Take some time to learn what all those strange log entries are, and I think you will find out most everything you are concerned about is completely normal functions of the operating system, and you will find that you have little to be concerned about.
- Dale

HelloMac - May 22, 2008 - 5:24 pm

Thank you for taking a look at this. I'll try Little Snitch and see where my leak is.

Best,
Dave

DeltaMac - May 22, 2008 - 6:01 pm

Just read the setup for that little snitch. Don't get pulled into completely stopping everything. The system (OS X) requires a certain amount of network traffic just to work. If you stop _every_ example of communication, you may quickly find that you can't go on the internet at all - and I don't think you want to go that far. If you do want to be that shut down, then you should just unplug your internet completely, eh?

- Dale

HelloMac - May 24, 2008 - 12:57 am

Again thanks, and some follow up.

Today my machine would not boot. I got to the gray apple screen with the
gears turning and that's it. Same thing when trying to boot from install disk. Once I reset npram/nvram I was able to boot from the installer.

Reset partition, erase, zero out, reinstall.

Installed little snitch and locked down everything even rules that are
preset for the system. I have not actually connected to the net but i can see some attempts to reach out.

Ntp _and_ ntpdate want to go out and set my clock. Are there really 2 processes desinged to do the same thing?

Discovered a .plist file that contained settings for several things that I don't and never gave had. World of Warcraft, Starcraft, db12, com.blizzard.launcher, com.blizzard.bnupdate, com.blizzard.downloads.

Also found a file establishing settings for a vnc connection tagged at the end with "stealth".

These were all in subfolders of library.

Any thoughts on what I'm dealing with here?

DeltaMac - May 24, 2008 - 8:26 am

You're dealing with your system. Those are all (even the game references) part of the OS X installation. You can find a variety of references to 3rd party software, which are defaults built-in to OS X. For example, huge numbers of printers, scanners, cell phones, cameras, monitors, various types of slot hardware, such as drive adapters, etc, etc, etc. NOT an indication of outside interference, but just normal stuff in your (and my) OS X system files.
One of the options for your firewall, is stealth mode, which prevents YOUR computer from responding in any way if an attempt is made to locate your Mac through the internet. The .stealth indicates a support file for that mode

If you prevent everything with Little Snitch, then your system will not do its normal communicating - and there is a fair amount that happens all the time. Speaking of time (and date), the ntp and ntpdate are both used. Ntpdate sets and synchronizes your time and date via NTP. That uses port 123, so don't close down that port (among others). Your system is simply waiting for a network connection. When you do connect to the internet, a number of things quickly happen. Your Mac will check to see if there are updates to your system. It will start a number of network services, and most of those will send (and then receive) a small amount of data. This is part of how the network connection works, it's not just one-way. So, if you prevent services from going out, and lock down so nothing comes in - you get _nothing_ For example, you won't be able to print to a network printer!
You need to do some research for which ports you should leave open. I don't have info about that, but you can lock your system down too tight, not allowing the normal system services to communicate, and then you have real problems.
Ask a question on the public forums here, specifically about which ports are best to leave open all the time.

DeltaMac - May 24, 2008 - 8:33 am

I don't believe it's necessary to do the complete wipe and reinstall for the simple problems that you have been having. This last one could have been fixed with a simple reinstall with an archive and install option. Too much work for all that other stuff!

- Dale

HelloMac - May 24, 2008 - 10:38 am

Dale- thank you for taking the time to explain to me. I appreciate it. Up to this point I have been unable to get as straightforward an answer about this from any of the apple support people. Knowingg that a reference to wow is a built in timesaver would have helped ease my obsession many days ago as I had seen it before.

I'll keep an eye on the logs but will let os x go about it's business.

Best,
dave

TechSupport - May 27, 2008 - 10:40 am

We apologize for not being able to resolve the issue you asked of us. It is the absolute worst case scenario for us to do this. In our review of why this happens, it generally is related to either the particular issue being addressed or frequently, incomplete or incorrect information provided. We hope by moving your request to the public forums that you will be able to get a solution without leaving you empty handed.

Your ticket has been closed with our support team. Your request has just been posted to Mac OS X System & Mac Software and is available for your viewing at:

http://macosx.com/forums/showthread.php?t=300769

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