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I want to make it so that it can't be seen or written to while booted from an external drive.

For some background, I use a cross-platform dev environment that can target Linux and want to install the recommended Linux distro for testing. Every time I've tried before, it wrote a boot loader to the internal drive that must be messed up because my Bootcamped Win 10 won't boot afterwards. If it matters the req'd distro is Linux Mint Cinnamon Edition.

newyork10023
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Bryan Dunphy
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  • You mean just so it doesn't auto-mount? fstab can do that - rather outdated but still effective way to do that - https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/205866/85275 – Tetsujin May 04 '20 at 15:56
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    @Tetsujin The system of an arbitrary external boot drive won't contain a working fstab... – klanomath May 04 '20 at 15:59
  • It won't, but we don't actually know what the OP has or needs. I'm just positing a possibility. if you know a global structure to do this [& I'm very aware you know 10x more than I do on this type of topic] go for it :) – Tetsujin May 04 '20 at 16:02
  • @Tetsujin Access to the macOS sources & build system of Apple system engineers is required to smuggle in a fstab file with the UUIDs of the various volumes of Bryan's iMac ;) – klanomath May 04 '20 at 16:47
  • @klanomath :-)) – Tetsujin May 04 '20 at 16:48
  • I trying to install another OS to the external HD without it putting a boot loader on the internal drive since "Option-booting" makes it unnecessary. All the advice I've found says to physically disconnect the internal drive but I'm disabled and can't do that myself and the only local shop willing to open and repair my iMac closed last month. – Bryan Dunphy May 04 '20 at 17:13
  • You don’t need to put a boot loader on the internal drive. You just have to remove the bootable portion - or even easier, wipe it clean. But it wont make it invisible because if it’s connected, it can be seen and mounted. Why are you trying to do this? – Allan May 04 '20 at 17:18
  • I use a cross-platform dev environment that can target Linux and want to install the recommended Linux distro for testing. Every time I've tried before, it wrote a boot loader to the internal drive that must be messed up because my Bootcamped Win 10 won't boot afterwards. If it matters the req'd distro is Linux Mint Cinnamon Edition. – Bryan Dunphy May 04 '20 at 17:30

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You appear to have two questions/issues:

1) A Linux system has "boot jacked" your boot manager/boot loader, messing up Windows.

2) Hiding above system from macOS.

You could give rEFInd a try to fix/manage your boot issues. It should solve 1 but not 2 per se.

There may be a solution for 2 here: How to prevent auto mounting of a volume in macOS High Sierra?

newyork10023
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  • How did you come to any of those conclusions based on what was posted? – Allan May 04 '20 at 20:52
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    @Allan OP wrote in a comment, "I use a cross-platform dev environment that can target Linux and want to install the recommended Linux distro for testing. Every time I've tried before, it wrote a boot loader to the internal drive that must be messed up because my Bootcamped Win 10 won't boot afterwards. If it matters the req'd distro is Linux Mint Cinnamon Edition." – newyork10023 May 04 '20 at 20:54
  • that should be in the question - I didn't see it under the rolled up comments - and it completely changes the context of the OPs original post. Do you have edit privilege yet? If so, edit it and get the credit for the fix as well. – Allan May 04 '20 at 21:14
  • @Allan Agreed. I am unable and unfamiliar with editing an original question. It should be suggested to OP, I assume. (And, I also don't like the rolling up of comments.) – newyork10023 May 04 '20 at 21:16
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    There's an [edit] button at the bottom of each question, if you've got the privilege (points). The OP should put it in, but many put things in comments (sigh). You get more more privileges when you edit X number of posts, etc. I don't need them so I was giving first crack at it to you. – Allan May 04 '20 at 21:23
  • I can only suggest an edit, which I have done. – newyork10023 May 04 '20 at 21:25
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    Cool..after so many of those, you'll be able to bypass the edit queue and make it instant. And I just approved it. ;-) – Allan May 04 '20 at 21:26
  • @Allan Found a thread with possible solutions. I added a link. Eager to try it myself.... – newyork10023 May 05 '20 at 01:00