Permanently Disable/Ignore Secondary Disk? I have a 256G SSD and a 1T HDD in my 27" iMac.

The 1T HDD is dying due to hardware failure.

Is there a file in OS X similar to /etc/fstab in Linux where I can prevent this 1T HDD from mounting?

I'd like to effectively disable/ignore this disk without needing to take it into an Apple store to be removed.
Yes!

First get the UUID of the partition you want to prevent from mounting...  You can get this in Disk Utility "Get Info".

Now open your /etc/fstab file for editing:

sudo pico /etc/fstab


In this file add the following line (use your own UUID naturally):

UUID=[your UUID] none hfs rw,noauto 0 0


And save the file.

Restart for the change to take affect.

You can always mount it manually in Disk Utility.