Tech Forum

Got a couple of questions regarding FHC machines that have been retired.

1. Do they need to have the hard drives wiped? in other words completely wiped with OS gone as well.

2. If so are we allow to reinstall an OS onto them?

The 2 PC in question only come with windows 2000 licence stickers so I assume you could only re-install windows 200 which is not really an option these days.

One runs a church imagine with is XP so I have thus far assumed when given away they will not be licensed to run XP only windows 2000. The other computer run windows 2000 anyway so should be covered by the licence sticker. .

3. I have previously had direction that I can merely give them away as is with no further wiping required could this be correct?

4. Do I give away the monitors as well? These are well over 5 years old machine and the monitors are CRT I understand. (not seen them)

Thanks

I don't see any requirement to wipe the hard drives, but it wouldn't be a bad idea as they may contain names, birthdates, mother's maiden name, etc.

Note that machines need to be properly disposed of. The policy only says you "may" use the means the church provides. Note those instructions may be superseded by instructions that came with new computers.

Whatever you do, make sure you have a receipt for where those computers go. Some areas have mandatory recycling policies. If those computers are found in a roadside dump and traced back to the church, that would be a bad thing.

Given the age of the computers, I would strongly urge you to send them to recycling. They're too old to be of much good to anyone else.

A agree about recycling them and have even told this to the Branch President and chaps who runs the FHC but they seem to want them back but have not told me what they are going to do with them.

Would we not be breaking licence laws if we kept the Windows XP on a 2000machine as I understand it the XP image that would have been put on the machine would have been a church licensed copy but the computer would no longer belong to the church therefore the version of XP on it should be removed.

sphester wrote:Would we not be breaking licence laws if we kept the Windows XP on a 2000machine as I understand it the XP image that would have been put on the machine would have been a church licensed copy but the computer would no longer belong to the church therefore the version of XP on it should be removed.

That's the way I see it. So if anything gets loaded back on, it would be what the sticker says. And a OS that old isn't going to survive long in the wild. (Which makes me concerned the machine will be tossed in the trash leading to problems for the church.)

You might want to talk to the Family History Department. They might have something more current on what should happen with the machines.

I've sent an e-mail to my FHC dept contact over here in the UK so will see what they say. Thanks for the policy document also

RussellHltn wrote:I don't see any requirement to wipe the hard drives, but it wouldn't be a bad idea as they may contain names, birthdates, mother's maiden name, etc.

Note that machines need to be properly disposed of. The policy only says you "may" use the means the church provides. Note those instructions may be superseded by instructions that came with new computers.

RussellHltn - the policy which you link to states that the STS is to "Ensures data is completely destroyed (“scrubbed”) on computers that are retired from use in the family history center. Software for this task is available from theFamilySearch Support Office."

Wouldn't this qualify as a requirement to "wipe" the hard drive?

dfchamplain wrote: Wouldn't this qualify as a requirement to "wipe" the hard drive?

Looks like it to me. I only checked the section on disposing of old computers. Thanks for catching that.

I am amazed the FHC support officer over here has apparently told the unit they can keep it as they want to use for Webcasts.

The one of the machines is some 8 years old and I'm just like it will never work well for webcasts.

I've now told the unit if they keep it for that its up to them support i'm not going to help with an 8 year old computer.