Sysadmin Broke Hardware Worth More Than He Made in a Month - and Lied His Way Out of the Mess
The Register, Monday, June 29th, 2026
A junior sysadmin dropped an expensive SCSI drive and fabricated a fault story to avoid consequences.
In this installment of The Register's Who, Me? column, a reader named Hank recounts an accident from the 1990s when he worked as a systems administrator at a poultry factory. While handling a pair of newly arrived 750MB SCSI drives, worth more than his monthly salary, Hank accidentally dropped one.
Facing potential job loss and a move back with his parents, he called his supervisor claiming the drive made a suspicious noise and might be faulty. His boss approved a vendor replacement, which arrived overnight, letting Hank complete the storage upgrade without facing consequences for his mistake.