How do I backup OS 9 system files?
I have a PowerBook G4 Titanium that I need to wipe to clear the previous user's personal data. It has a password that I don't know but I can still login automatically to OS X upon boot. Not having the administrative password is preventing me from wiping the computer through the options provided by the OS.
I have learned that these older macs come with specific roms and extensions for the older OSs and I would like to back these up. But I understand that this isn't entirely straightforward due to aliasing and resource forks. The OS 9 part of the laptop was never used so it is pristine and a good candidate for being backed up.
How do I do go about backing up all of the necessary files in a way that I can restore them?
I selected the following files on the root partition and dropped then all at once into DropStuff:
- Applications (Mac OS 9)/
- Desktop (Mac OS 9)/ -> Desktop Folder/
- Desktop Folder/
- Desktop DB
- Desktop DF
- System Folder/
- Trash/
Is this sufficient to preserve aliases and resources or do I need to do this differently?
I know very little about vintage Mac software and filesystems but I am very experienced with both Windows and Linux. Please feel free to be as technical as you like.
Those are rebuilt automatically if they are missing:
- Desktop DB
- Desktop DF
- Trash
To test it, just use an external disk, copy those files on a HFS partitioned volume, press option on reboot to select the start volume.