Company management using Windows 2000 in 2020

[Alabamarebel1861]

I know of a small handyman company that a friend of mine is involved with in the area. This company has one specific computer to do all things related to the business and this computer is a Pentium III based computer running Windows 2000. All there business dealings online or off are done through this deralect computer which is even still rocking it's original CRT monitor. Amazing what these old systems can still do if you know how to work them.

 

[Chuck(G)]

The only part of that making me a bit wary is "online". Better have a good firewall.

 

[Alabamarebel1861]

The only part of that making me a bit wary is "online". Better have a good firewall.

from what I've heard it runs through multiple proxies a VPN service and they have an active firewall so I think they should be ok.

 

[Agent Orange]

I know of a small handyman company that a friend of mine is involved with in the area. This company has one specific computer to do all things related to the business and this computer is a Pentium III based computer running Windows 2000. All there business dealings online or off are done through this deralect computer which is even still rocking it's original CRT monitor. Amazing what these old systems can still do if you know how to work them.

Just curious. Has anyone every mentioned upgrading and do they have any sort of backup mechanism in place? There's a few threads here about some machine shops still running DOS based systems for NC. Like you, I think it's great.

 

[g4ugm]

I know of a small handyman company that a friend of mine is involved with in the area. This company has one specific computer to do all things related to the business and this computer is a Pentium III based computer running Windows 2000. All there business dealings online or off are done through this deralect computer which is even still rocking it's original CRT monitor. Amazing what these old systems can still do if you know how to work them.

Its also amazing how often such companies go under when such a computer fails! Its fine using such old kit until it falls over. Personally I would look at putting it in a Virtual Machine.....

 

[Alabamarebel1861]

Just curious. Has anyone every mentioned upgrading and do they have any sort of backup mechanism in place? There's a few threads here about some machine shops still running DOS based systems for NC. Like you, I think it's great.

All the important documents are backed up to older high quality 720K floppies so those are safe for the most part. and the HDD gets backed up to a server from what I can gather.

 

[Chuck(G)]

While 720K floppies are pretty good (I have perhaps a thousand of them), I recommend backup to 9-track open-reel 1/2" tape.

 

[g4ugm]

All the important documents are backed up to older high quality 720K floppies so those are safe for the most part. and the HDD gets backed up to a server from what I can gather.

yes 720k is good, but I still wonder if they ever tried a recovery. I always say start with your Disaster Recovery and work out what you need to save. If the server has applications installed, recovering them to newer hardware could be fun...

 

[compaqportableplus]

That is really cool! Love seeing old hardware and software still in use. Windows 2000 rocks!

 

[AndyO]

I wonder sometimes why it is often assumed that people, even businesses, using old computers are somehow lacking in the ability to take care of their security and data in ways appropriate to them.

While Windows 2000 is not inherently secure, it is not hard to secure a Windows 2000 system. And data backup to 3.5 inch floppy is not hazardous or problematic, and depending on the data sets being used, is probably not even that much time consuming.

If old systems do the job the user needs, and fulfill their purposes, then sticking with them makes perfect sense.

 

[Unknown_K]

The only good thing about backing up to floppies is that you lose only a bit of data when each one fails. I don't think any 3.5" media is very reliable for long term storage.

 

[Chuck(G)]

What do you consider "long term"? I've still got very readable 3.5" floppies from the early 1980s. (single sided, done on Sony 0AD31 drives for the Preis luggable). For longevity, I'll take DS2D over DSHD any day.

 

[whartung]

The floppies are "OK" as long as they can recover the system from utter disaster (HD and/or MB failure).

If they can be read by a modern machine using a USB Floppy drive, it should be fine. But, in the end, backups are only as good as the hardware/software that can recover them.

 

[DeltaDon]

What happens if the computer does more than just die? Assuming a fire or flood turns it into a pile of steaming poo, can they easily find a replacement computer to read the stored 720K disks? Plus are the backups stored on site or off site? On the web? Ask people on the left coast what's left of their business after a wild fire takes out a town or two. A 10 foot flood of brown water would gum up the drives a bit, I'd guess. Bad enough having to rebuild, but not being able to recover their files due to lack of hardware to read safely stored backups would put the final nails in that coffin.