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The original was posted on /r/talesfromtechsupport by /u/jasondbk on 2025-10-29 12:41:00+00:00.

Our company was a special place, we were an AS/400 programming firm although we also had a group that wrote custom PC software. So each PC had a network card, used Netware for the file servers AND software that let them connect to the AS/400 over Ethernet.

(My PC and three others also had a twin-ax card with cables that went directly to the AS/400 in case the network went down.)

The PCs booted from floppy disk as they were running DOS and Win 3.11 ran from the server.

We started installing Windows 95 and still used the DOS boot disk and ran Windows 95 from the server. My boss thought this was a great way to do it. It also kept people from saving projects locally instead of on the server.

It was time for me and the three others on my team to get new PCs and my boss paid $400 EXTRA to remove the hard drives at the factory (Compaq). After two weeks of my boss running Windows 95 from a DOS boot disk the boss started to see things differently.

After confirming with me that I had the skills to install hard drives she agreed to order hard drives for us. All new PCs would be ordered with hard drives moving forward.

She ordered hard drives and they added to the price the IDE and power cables. But not mounting brackets. Our local reseller forgot she had specified no hard drives and Compaq didn’t put mounting brackets in for free. Then she had to order Compaq HD mounting brackets as the factory had not installed any HD parts at her request. We must have paid $600 or so (HD, cables and brackets) to add a hard drive to each of the computers she custom ordered without hard drives.

Her next batch of new computers she had me pull the hard drive IDE and power cables and people continued to boot from floppies until she was ready to convert the whole company to Win 95.