All of last week, I was researching solutions for our software developers’ source code and working with legacy DB software. At FSI, we run an internal CRM program called Onyx, as I mentioned earlier. This software has been running on a SQL Server 6.5 and a pretty clunky box. For fear that the software won’t work with a newer version of MS SQL, we have made a new box and installed SQL 6.5 with Windows NT 4.0. Since the server is on an NT platform, I have to be at the server to do any work, no Remote Desktoping. So, I placed the backup .DAT file on the new server and attempted to restore it using SQL 6.5’s internal restore option. This is where the work started.

Since NT is terrible with partitioning drives, the C Drive only had 2 GB of partitioned space and rest was unpartitioned and unformattable using any sort of internal OS utility. Unlike Windows Server 2000 and higher, there is no Computer Management utility in NT. This meant having to get Server Magic, an old program originally made by Power Quest and now owned by Symantec. Server Magic is just like Partion Magic (R) for the server. So, after freeing up the 18GB and formatting it as another drive, I could finally begin working with the database backup in SQL Enterprise Manager without any space issues. While waiting for Server Magic, I entered all of the logins to the database that needed to moved from the old database and server.

Along with research and Windows NT work, we received a big shipment of 19′ Dell LCD monitors. This meant that I became generic IT guy again and had to setup monitors and move old CRTs to anywhere that would fit them. Every department (Sales, Support & Development) got a few new monitors and some people even kept their old CRTs to do a dual-monitor setup. In the mean time, there are boxes and CRTs sitting around waiting for a truck to take them to the computer recycle shop.