I actually got to use my computer skillz at the
retail gig today.
There's been an application problem with the point of
sale terminal as long as I've been working there. The bug prevents employees from
clocking out at store close. Each morning the opening manager has to manually enter
the end time for those the night before. From what I understand, the programmer
dudes have been working on this for more than a year to no avail. Oddly enough, we're
the only store in the chain with this problem.
The solution ... send us a new (make that newer, but
still old) computer with imaged software. Because of my background, the store manager
asked me to do the swap out this morning.
There were two hard drives in each
computer. One had the operating system, the other all the application and database
files. I pulled the db hard drive from the old computer and installed it in the new,
put the cover back on and hooked up all the peripherals.
So far, so good. Now to crank it up. Heard the old,
familiar beep of a good POST. Then a simple message: Kernel file not found. What?
They didn't put an OS on this machine! It's
supposed to have Windows 2000 Pro. I did manage to get the original computer back up
and operational two minutes before the store opened.
