[net.micro.mac] Dataframe Utilities can be Killers

rpk@ecsvax.UUCP (Richard Kelley) (10/27/86)

I don't know if this is common knowledge or not, but DO NOT run
the Dataframe utility "update" if your hard disk is not a Dataframe!

I did (I have a MacBottom) thinking that if anything bad happened I
would just re-format my hard disk and restore the files.  As long as
you always backup your hard disk you're OK, right?  WRONG.  After I 
ran the "update" utility I noticed that my hard disk icon was now a
Dataframe with a "S" across it.  Furthermore, I now only had a total
of less than 20 Megabytes for the hard disk instead of the approx. 21
Megabytes I used to have.  Nothing that I could do would fix this.
In desperation I erased the entire hard disk and restored it to the 
same state it was when it arrived.  Except that the silly Dataframe
icon was still there, and I still had less than 20 Megabytes.

To make a long story short, the "update" utility re-writes the SCSI
driver that is part of the hard disk.  Since there is no way to access
this area with FEdit, you are S.O.L. (Sadly Out of Luck).  The only
fix is to send the hard disk back to the manufacturer so that they can
completely reformat the disk and rewrite the SCSI boot and driver.

       -Dick                               --- ecsvax!rpk
                                          /
USENET: ...!{decvax,ihnp4,akgua}!mcnc! ---                      --- root
                                          \                    /
                                           --- rti-sel!flan ---
                                                               \
                                                                --- rpk
ARPA: decvax!mcnc!ecsvax!rpk@decwrl.ARPA

tim@ism780c.UUCP (Tim Smith) (11/01/86)

This sounds like bad design by the MacBottom people.  A disk manufacturer
should provide software to reformat that disk and re-install *everything*
that the disk needs to work.
-- 
member, all HASA divisions              POELOD  ECBOMB
                                        --------------
                                               ^-- Secret Satanic Message

Tim Smith       USENET: sdcrdcf!ism780c!tim   Compuserve: 72257,3706
                Delphi or GEnie: mnementh