[TriLUG] Non-Profit Refurbishing

[Wayne Henley]

Check out g4u at http://www.feyrer.de/g4u/

Wayne

John Gilbert wrote:

>Hey Folks,
> 
>I'm new to the LUG, but I had a request/question for those with more
>experience. I run a not-for-profit program called Teaming for Technology
>(part of the Triangle United Way) that refurbishes donated computers to
>be given to schools and other non-profit organizations in Durham,
>Orange, and Wake counties here in NC. Right now our process for
>refurbishing goes as follows:
>1.We remove the hard drives from the donated machines.
>2.We plug the HDDs into our "Killing Machine" where we run the open
>source "Darik's Boot and Nuke" disk wiping program.
>3.We plug the HDDs into our "Cloning Machine" where we run Norton Ghost
>to clone our master image onto our new HDD.
>4.We put the ghosted drive into a machine and load the drivers from the
>image.
>Now, as you can imagine, Norton Ghost isn't the cheapest license to buy
>in the world, especially for a non-profit and for the number of
>computers we go through annually. Basically we need to find an open
>source solution to replace our current cloning process. Our master image
>has Windows 2000 Professional (I know, I know, I wish we could put Linux
>on them, too, but we can't do that thanks to our agreement with
>Microsoft), all the drivers that we have needed to date (along with a
>program that wipes off the unneeded drives when run), the open source
>anti-virus program aVast!, the open source MS Office alternative
>OpenOffice, and a few other odds and ends. We would like to be able to
>have a piece of software that is bootable, able to clone at least hard
>drive to hard drive and hopefully over a network as well, and as
>reliable as Norton Ghost. We don't have much to offer in return other
>than gratitude and recognition. We would be willing to name the program
>after the maker(s) and even include his/her/their name(s) on our
>background image that goes on 1000+ computers every year. If you have
>any questions about the program feel free to email me at
>jgilbert at unitedwaytriangle.org, call me at 919.463.5047, or check out
>our website at http://www.unitedwaytriangle.org/2004/t4t/t4t.htm.
> 
>Thanks So Much!
> 
>  John Gilbert
>  Technology Outreach Specialist
>  Triangle United Way
>  P.O. Box 110387 
>  Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 
>  919.463.5047    Direct 
>  919.460.8687    General 
>  919.460.9019    Fax 
>  JGilbert at unitedwaytriangle.org 
>  www.unitedwaytriangle.org 
> 
>  
>