Scott Dier wrote:
> I know a DBAN-it-yourself station would be freaking awesome. :)

That would be awesome. We should do that.

> Plus instead of people going to best buy to dispose of perfectly good
> hard drives, they could give them to free geek instead.
> 
> On Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 7:44 PM, Josh Trutwin <josh at trutwins.homeip.net> wrote:
>> I have a bunch of stuff - do you have a policy on what you do with
>> incoming hard drives?  Do you want them brought in erased or is
>> that something I can be assured you will do with any hard drives
>> you receive?

We will ensure that any donated hard drives are wiped following the
guidelines of Free Geek Portland
(http://www.freegeek.org/donate/security/).

On the earlier discussion about what we'll accept, Free Geek Portland is
generally our guide on these issues, however they have about half a city
block of space and a well-established work-flow. Since we're just
starting out with pretty limited initial resources we will probably need
to focus on just computers and their components, monitors, and the basic
accessories (mice, keyboards, etc) and then broaden our scope as we go.
Any tools or networking equipment would also be gladly accepted since we
need to equip the work space.

I think it would be unreasonable of us to insist that equipment must be
working. As many of us on this list know the definition of "working"
depends a lot on the owner's technical knowledge. It's also a key part
of our mission to see that equipment gets recycled in an ethical and
environmentally responsible manner. What works will get reused and what
doesn't will get recycled.

That said, we encourage financial donations to accompany hardware
donations since we have to pay rent and downstream recycling fees. And
if your equipment is _really_ old and busted... well, be generous. :)

Thanks.

-Steve