Here's a story that's bound to anger quite a few of you. Apparently, a couple brought their computer in for repair at a local Best Buy and were told their hard drive needed to be replaced. The old drive was supposed to be destroyed, but it ended up for sale at a flea market with all of the couple's personal data intact. Someone at Best Buy is getting' fired...
Henry Gerbus said Best Buy assured him the computer's old hard drive -- loaded with personal information -- would be destroyed. "They said rest assured. They drill holes in it so it's useless," said Gerbus. A few months ago, Gerbus got a phone call from a man in Chicago. "He said, 'My name is Ed. I just bought your hard drive for $25 at a flea market in Chicago,'"
Marco Chiappetta
Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com
