>
> I'm not certain why you would want to store the hard drive of someone who
> has left. Finding information on that hard drive is a little bit like
> finding a needle in the haystack. You have no idea as to how the file
> structure was setup, naming conventions etc.


I must agree it would be ideal to have the departing employee provide a "data
map" of their hard drive, or even better yet, pass on any files that they
know are uniquely on their machines and/or transfer the contents into a
central filing system, but:

 - not all employees leave under good terms
- very few employees are motivated to do this type of work when they're
leaving
- an insufficient number of supervisors or managers think of this at the
time
While finding the files might be a daunting task, losing them might be a
costly proposition. I'd opt for having the ability to search for them if
they were needed over simply discarding them if they can't be transferred in
an efficient manner prior to the employee departing.


I would suggest that the owner, before they leave, forward on any reports or
> documents which they feel may be of value to the organization and then wipe
> the hard drive clean.


As mentioned, you don't always have this option. Some employees are
terminated under less than ideal circumstances and the information on the
hard drive might become a key component in a termination lawsuit. And
ultimately, I agree, the hard drive SHOULD be wiped clean, but the time
frame for accomplishing this should take into consideration any potential
"value" assigned to data potentially on the machine, as well as any "risk"
associated with retaining or disposing of it.

 Of course, if an EDRMS is in place, I would assume the important
> information has been store there.


You're right... if an EDMS, ERMS or CMS is in place and the user was a node
on the system, MOST information that reached the status of a record SHOULD
be there. However, there are systems that don't take in ALL content, and
there may be information that is stored uniquely on hard drives at the
desktop level.

 Some other considerations:

 If you're in a highly regulated industry, such as finance, communications
or energy OR you work for an organization that has seen more than it's share
of employee filed lawsuits OR there was anything questionable about an
employee's termination or status while employed, you'd want to save their
hard drive. I know of a few firms who have had employees leave and then turn
around and sue them and the contents of the hard drive saved them tons of
money... and I know of one firm who had a disgruntled employee blow the
whistle on them for destroying documents prior to their retention period
(because they were on her hard drive!) but because they had made an image of
the drive, they were able to avoid a penalty.

 Similarly, if you have a distributed file management system where files are
stored uniquely on a desktop rather than on a server or in a partition of as
"P or S" drive on a server, to satisfy retention requirements, you'd be
required to either extract, index and save all files or as a lower cost
alternative, save the drive as is in the event you have to look for
something and then search for it at a later date.

 Now, the question becomes... do you save the drive itself, do you save the
entire PC, configured as it was and then access it via a network, or do you
simply image the drive into a folder on a server and then have access to the
contents as if the machine was still "live"? I noticed one poster was not in
favor of this concept, but he also introduced the concept of compression,
which really isn't necessary... if you're trying to save space when you do
this, you can delete all of the applications and simply save the files and
open them with server resident versions of the same applications, as long as
they aren't unique to that one user.

 The only other problem I have with the concept of retaining the
drive/information/data is the assignment of a "3 year" bubble to the
retention. What happens if there's data on there that is supposed to be
retained for 6 or 10 years, or even longer and you have knowingly made a
decision to delete it after 3? Are you violating your organizations
retention policy by doing this, or if you have in your policy a record
series for "information included in the systems of terminated or separated
employees" and assign it a retention period of "3 years after termination or
separation from employment"... is that adequate?
Larry
--
Larry Medina
Danville, CA
RIM Professional since 1972

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