Recover a machine to working order and time the two halves separately

short · 60 min · Objective 4.3

Task

Rebuild the guest from nothing and record the machine half and the accounts half as separate timings. The second half is nearly always the longer one and is the half nobody plans for, which is the observation this lab exists to produce.

Steps

  1. Record what a fully working machine means in lab/gone/definition.csv with header requirement,how_verified -- at least eight items covering operating system, applications, data, accounts, mail, printers, network and licences.
  2. Rebuild the machine half and time it, recording each stage in lab/gone/machine.csv with header stage,duration_min,blocked_by.
  3. Work the accounts half and time it, recording it in lab/gone/accounts.csv with the same header -- sign-ins, second factors, mail, licences and certificates.
  4. Restore data into the new profile deliberately, one application at a time, and record in lab/gone/data.csv with header item,method,worked,note -- including anything you decided NOT to copy across and why.
  5. Write lab/gone/interim.md describing what you would have given the user to work with while all of this was happening, and how long it would have taken to arrange.

Verify

awk -F, 'NR>1 && NF>=2 {n++} END {print n" requirement(s)"}' lab/gone/definition.csv
awk -F, 'NR>1 {s+=$2} END {print "machine half: "s" minutes"}' lab/gone/machine.csv
awk -F, 'NR>1 {s+=$2} END {print "accounts half: "s" minutes"}' lab/gone/accounts.csv
awk -F, 'NR>1 && NF>=4 {n++} END {print n" data item(s)"}' lab/gone/data.csv
awk -F, 'NR>1 && $3 ~ /no|skipped/ {n++} END {print n" item(s) deliberately not copied"}' lab/gone/data.csv
grep -Ec '^[-*0-9A-Za-z]' lab/gone/interim.md

Eight requirements with a verification each, both halves timed, and at least one data item deliberately not copied. Copying an old profile folder over a new one wholesale is the mistake this lab is steering around, and the skipped items are the evidence it was avoided.

Notes

Compare the two totals. On most rebuilds the accounts half is longer, and it is the half that has no progress bar and no obvious owner.

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