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Drive Locks
Installing drive locks on your public access workstations is one of the first method's for preventing damage to the hard drive of your computers. Our library at this time does not allow downloading to discs and ,with the addition of the drive locks, we are better able to enforce this policy. There are several different types of locks and manufacturers of these products. The two products used by our library system are listed below.

Small Adhesive Locks
Qualtec- Freemont, California
www.pcsecurity.com

Panel Locks
Business Machine Security- Brea, California
www.bmsmfg.com

CMOS Settings

Prior to loading the operating system. all PCs initiate a boot-up procedure based on their CMOS settings. CMOS set-up is a program which prepares your computer to work by recording settings related to the hardware itself. These settings include items such as the amount of disk space, amount of memory, boot-up sequence, and date/time settings. Usually pressing the [Del] key at start-up allows a user to enter CMOS set-up. Since there are a variety of PC manufacturers, it would be difficult to list all the possible keys. Often the key to press appears on your screen when you turn on or re-boot your computer.

Once you have entered the CMOS program, set a password so settings cannot be altered.

Another setting you should change is the boot up sequence from A:-C: to C:-A:. This change causes the computer to always boot off the hard disk even if there is a disk in the floppy drive. This prevents users from inserting a floppy and bypassing the operating system and from possibly infecting the computer with a virus.