another C & C Gen problem

[DownwardSpyral]

Before you get angry... I wanna let a few things be known...

1. This is not a pirated copy. I own the original discs
2. The error I am getting has not yet been discussed


Okay. the error I am getting is most likely an anti-piracy error, and it's not the end of the world, but I'm just curious is there is a way around it.

I install the game... full install.. using a BACK UP disc. I then install the 1.3 update, and copy over the cracked exe and game.dat and start up the game. it runs fine. I then try playing online and it tells me I need to update the game in order to play online. I update the game via the built in updater, and then restart it. Before it starts, it attempts to patch the game, and I get the error "Game.dat has been modified outside of this patch, updating was not successful"

While this isn't some grand crisis, because the error does not exist when I install and run/update using the original, but that defeats the purpose of a back-up disc...

And ideas?