Dell DoD Hard Drive Continued

A gentleman from Dell called me today, to let me know that they read my blog entry, and that obviously it concerned them and they wanted to investigate and take pains to see what they can do to avoid this happening again. Well, good on them.

He first wanted me to pop the hard drive and get a number for them to track the lifetime and path of the hard drive, but it became clear that I didn’t really have the tools (or the time, really) to pop it open, and apparently the HD is inconveniently located on the X300 anyway. So, he offered me a new Dell D420 in exchange, along with a 2G upgrade and a 1 year extension to my next-day biz standard plan.

It didn’t take me long to think that one over. Pretty sweet!

Free laptop aside, here’s hoping Dell can use the info I was able to provide to prevent this from happening again – for the DoD, or for anyone, really. My privacy is certainly at least as important as the Department of Defense’s, I’d say. Fortunately I don’t really have anything of value or sensitivity on my laptop.