Emory University accidentally makes its computers reformat themselves

Have you ever reformatted a computer and then immediately realized you shouldn’t have? Well, an “accident” at Emory University this week will make your mistake look like a brilliant, carefully considered decision. Here’s the crux of what happened: “A Windows 7 deployment image was accidently sent to all Windows machines, including laptops, desktops, and even servers. This image started with a repartition/reformat set of tasks. As soon as the accident was discovered, the SCCM server was powered off – however, by that time, the SCCM server itself had been repartitioned and reformatted.”

Emory University had a spectacular failure of protocol earlier this week. Using Microsoft’s System Center Configuration Manager technology, a A Windows 7 deployment image was accidently sent to all of the University’s Windows 7 machines, including laptops, desktops, and servers on May 14. The image, when completely acquired by served computers launched with a repartition and reformat set of tasks, erasing the contents of all the machines the image was sent to. Microsoft’s System Center Configuration Manager is a systems management software designed to manage large groups of computers running Windows, Windows Embedded, Mac OS X, Linux or UNIX, as well as various mobile operating systems such as Windows Phone, Symbian, iOS and Android. Configuration Manager provides remote control, patch management, software distribution, operating system deployment, network access protection and hardware and software inventory. Used improperly, the tool can cause mass havoc across an entire organization.