Changing Hard Drives:

[bill deutschman]

> Why not do it yourself !
> Just change the hard disk !

Peter,

I guess you have never worked at an educational institution in the US.  They
have a computer center with computer programers, technicians and a director
that protects his empire.  You are not allowed to do anything to "Their"
computers.  My wife is a full professor of mathematics and I have to work on
her computer at night or on the weekends so the computer center won't find
out that we are modifing her computer.

If her hard drive quit she would have no choice but to wait until the
college purchased a replacement from the authorized state supplier, then
installed it and re-loaded the system and all of the programs even though we
are more skilled than the student technicians that they employ.  They have
three part time technicians for about 200 PC's.  Two weeks for Linda's
computer sounds like a very short time.

Schools are very sensitive about licenses for programs and operating systems
as they can be sued for big money if the software vendors find un-licened
programs on their computers.  Do you know that many programs perodically
contact the vendor over the internet without your knowledge?  I didn't until
I installed a "firewall" program when I changed my ISP so that I am now
continuously connected to the internet.  Four or five of my programs try to
connect about once a week.  Fortunately the firewall program asks if I want
them to do so.  The vendors say it is to check for up-grades and bug fixes
but I'm also sure that they check the program registration as well.  You
should asume that anything you post of the internet is being viewed by
others and possibly recorded for future use.


bill


bill deutschman
455 hillside avenue
klamath falls, OR 97601-2337
541.882.3295
olcbillafireserve.net