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by amatecha 1605 days ago
I've found entire, functional computers thrown out. My first web server was a 386 built from dumpster-dived parts, quickly upgraded to a 486 as I found new stuff. I still have those computers, too. It's amazing how wasteful people are with tech. People, please don't throw out working computers if you can avoid it. Take them to a thrift shop or a specialized place that will fix them up and sell them, like Free Geek. Post an ad on Craigslist "free" section.
1 comments
bitwize 1605 days ago
A year and a half ago, I found an entire HP Elite 8300 standing by the dumpster in the rain. It was only missing a hard disk (likely removed to be shredded).

I brought it in, checked it for rust or damage, let it dry for several days, and ordered a hard drive for it. It runs fine, and I use it as a repo/build server.

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HeyLaughingBoy 1605 days ago
Nice. I have an SGI Indigo that I will probably never be able to use again because I forgot its login credentials years ago. And I think the monitor was proprietary to SGI and I tossed because it took up too much room.

Then again, I could probably find a downloadable OS for it somewhere online.

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ddingus 1605 days ago
Unless it's been secured, you can probably boot using the miniroot on the installation media, go to the password file and clear the root password and save.

Restart that Indigo, and log on as root, no password.

When doing various services on these machines, I would keep a drive ready to boot miniroot. Would clear the root password, archive the hash, then do the work, put it back and on to the next gig. Most of the time nobody even knew what that password was.

Took {big company IT} quite a while to finally call and ask how those services were getting done...

http://www.sgistuff.net/mirrors/4dfaq/index.html#bootsash

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amatecha 1605 days ago
You can definitely boot that SGI in single-user mode or off a bootable OS and read the passwd file. Just found a guide on resetting the root password on an SGI machine[0]. Someone probably would have paid multiple $hundred for that monitor :(

[0] https://software.majix.org/irix/admin-password.shtml

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amatecha 1605 days ago
That's awesome!! Great find indeed. The best working system I ever found was a Pentium 4.
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