Repurposed Computers

The Repurposed Computer Project

A great way to update research laboratory computers not on a regular replacement schedule!

A percentage of computers retrieved as part of the Computer Replacement Project are made available to departments as part of the Repurposed Computer Project. Researchers have first choice of purchasing additional computers from among the best machines undergoing replacement at four years of service. The repurposed computers are re-imaged with Windows 11 Education and have two years of full support for a one-time fee of $125. This is an excellent opportunity for researchers to replace aging laboratory computers with newer Windows 10 machines at reasonable cost.

As of Jan. 1, 2024, all re-purposed computers are imaged with Windows 11 Education.

Click Repurposed Computer Project for detailed information.

For help obtaining a repurposed computer for research, please contact Janet Keener at 94142 or the ITS HelpDesk at 94648.

Research Data at Risk on Aging Computers

As computers age, the potential for hardware failure increases, particularly after 3 years, and data loss becomes an increasingly risky proposition. BackBlaze reports an early annual hard drive failure rate of 5.1% across the first 18 months of use of all major hard drive brands, then a standing 1.4% (constant) annual hard drive failure rate, followed by an 11.8% annual failure rate in drives older than 3 years. We strongly recommend adherence with ETSU policy requiring that all digital research data should be backed up to one of the three following locations: 1) an ETSU network drive, 2) an ETSU OneDrive for Business account, or 3) the ETSU managed AWS Cloud. ITS is available to assist with research computer and software updates and upgrades.