[luau] FYI: DOD donated PC's

[Jeff Zidek]

Regarding the DOD clean drives.  It is true their are several programs
out their that can clean unclassified hard disks so they can be give to
schools. The main problem is time.  Using the program given to us by
base communications it took almost 12 hours to clean one 10 gig drive to
DOD standards.  Yes it runs on a floppy so a few machines can be hooked
up at one time and let run over night.  You can see though how this is a
pain and if the security custodian doesn't care about the donation it
will be easier to do nothing with them or junk the drives.  Jeff Zidek

On Wed, 2002-05-29 at 12:58, Taylor Cody Civ SAIC/PETS wrote:
> Here is a couple of things I have learned about getting the military to
> donate computers for educational use.  Allot of the times a custodian will
> want to remove the hard drives before giving out machines.  I can't say this
> isn't the fastest and safest thing to do, but there are other ways.  If the
> drive has always been unclassified than the military has approved software
> that will write 0's to the drive "seven" times.  This is the DOD standard if
> you want to officially call a drive "clean".  According to Hickam's base
> ADPE custodian, the drives can be given with the PC's once this is done.  If
> you ask me, once you get someone at that level to say OK, record all the
> serial numbers, fill out the paper work, get the right signatures, and push
> the machines out the door.  Unfortunately some people would rather yank out
> the drives, or let a machine sit in a store room before they go through that
> trouble.  Hickam doesn't seem to have that problem so we have lucked out so
> far.  This one custodian who is on the ball, will end up providing 30+
> machines for us to place in various public and private schools in Hawaii.  I
> think that is pretty cool.  Of course im not going to brag on the Air Force
> to much, until the machines are signed for and off the base.  Maybe
> tomorrow.  ^_^
> 
> Cody Taylor
> Northrop Grumman,Information Technology,
> PACAF ETS
> Hickam AFB, Honolulu, HI
> 808-449-4102
> 
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