Stop Netboot Wiping Local Hd

David Ferguson

Registered
Hi,
My school have a netboot system, where every time a computer reboots, it wipes the local HD. I believe this is achieved via the 'Customise' option using Automator when the network admins created the netboot share.

My question is this:
Is there any way to stop the mac from formatting the local HD every time it starts up using the netboot image? I have tried renaming the HD (it just renamed itself back to localhd), and also partitioning it into 2 partitions (both partitions ended up being renamed localhd).

How can I get round this?

Thanks in advance,
David
 
Hi, David!
Are you asking about that from the perspective of an IT department, and need to find out how to configure netboot for that?
Or - are you a user, and you need a way to save your own files without resorting to external storage?
The netboot system provides user storage on the server, right?
Unless you have one of those "IT support from hell…", you COULD provide your tech support folks with a good reason that you need to keep your files. Perhaps they are better equipped to help you with that. (I expect it will make a difference if you are instruction staff - or student?)

Is there anything that prevents you from using a flash drive, or some other external drive for storing your files?
 
Hi,
Thanks for replying. The reason that I want the local HD to retain information is so that I can install Mac OS X onto it, and have a custom copy of OS X that I can boot into on that computer, with admin privaliges and the ability to run any program that I want.
I'm thinking that the only way to achieve this now is to install and boot from a USB drive. I will see how slow this is tomorrow!
Thanks for your help.
 
Sure - that would work.
That's assuming that your IT allows a private setup on a computer that apparently belongs to the school.
Admin access means nothing, if you aren't allowed to connect with privately owned computers

Or, are you saying that the school's computers do NOT now have OS X installed? You did not say if you have Macs - or something else… (?)
 
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