Re: Incompatible configure.dat error msg resolution sought

[gdr@eddore.myrias.com (Devin Reade)]

In article <4tivbn$84q@srv13s4.cas.org>,
Larry W. Virden <lvirden@cas.org> wrote:
>
>My 10 year old came to me this weekend upset because of something that's
>happened to his GS.  When he boots it up, he is getting a message about
>an incompatible configure.dat file, then ends up in the ramfast scsi
>utility.
[...]
>What we would love to find is some solution that doesn't require reformatting
>the disk, as he bought this computer from someone else and hasn't done a
>backup of the hard drive.

Here's a wildass guess:

If I remember correctly, the RAMFast saves configuration to the first
writable hard drive in the chain:

	Remove the hard drive, replace it with another.  Make sure
	that the temp drive is using ID 2 or higher. Reboot and
	reconfigure the RAMFast.

	Power down the machine, place the problem drive at the end
	of the chain (closest to the terminator) and give it a lower
	ID than the temp drive.

	Power up.  Hopefully the problem is gone.  Back up the drive,
	then repartition and reformat it.

If the above steps don't work, try it with the temp drive at the end
of the chain and with the highest ID, rather than vice-versa.  I've
also found that with some combinations of drives that I have to occupy
ID 7 first with a HD and work down through successive IDs (at least for
the writable block devices).

The physical order on the chain WRT the SCSI IDs shouldn't matter
either, but sometimes it makes a difference.

Let us know if my suggested method works.  Like I said, it's a WAG.

-- 
Tomorrow I will seven eagles see, a great comet will appear, and voices will
speak from whirlwinds foretelling monstrous and fearful things -- This 
Universe never did make sense; I suspect that it was built on government
contract.                                          - Robert Heinlein