Hard drives & airports - carry on, or pack 'em?

danshewan · Mar 2011

Pretty self-explanatory, really. I need to take a couple of hard drives with me when I move in a couple of weeks, and I'm not sure of the best way to do it.

I guess it's a toss-up between carrying them in my hand luggage on the plane, or packing them as securely as possible in the depths of a suitcase. I'm wondering if the myriad of scanners (and their evil, nefarious magnetism) will damage the drives if I carry them in my hand luggage?

Likewise, I'm not thrilled at the idea of the drives sustaining physical damage being tossed around by the throwers with the rest of my stuff.

Suggestions? Experiences? Funny stories?

Let's hear it!

XenoKratios · Mar 2011

I have brought it in carry on, packed in bubble wrap (flight was from a province in Canada to another): No problem. (may or may not have cannabis in the carry on with me.)

I also brought my whole computer in a luggage with everything in there, wrapped in cloths and a towel: No problem (some connections were loose, a quick wiggle did the trick).

Choose your weapon, but keep in mind, we don't have full body scanners of full nudeness (just have the man touch your balls).

Ben Apuna · Mar 2011

You might want to read Lamont's F$CKING AIRLINES!!! thread.

I'd say carry on, or ship/mail em.

danshewan · Mar 2011

I think I'm leaning towards carrying them with me. I've never heard of anyone's data being lost by going through an X-ray, even though I would imagine that radiation isn't too good for hard drives. Last thing I need is a belligerent, underpaid baggage handler kicking my drives around the tarmac.

Fortunately, we don't have the notorious 'security' measures here either, so I'll escape the fondling and / or naked body scanners.

This time.

edit: Thanks for the link, Ben - I think that seals it for me. Now I get to explain why I'm boarding a plane with a bag loaded with various electrical components.

YdoUwant2know · Mar 2011

I would go carry on. Just make sure they are easy to get to. In most major US airports they will ask that you take out any major electronics (laptops, portable dvd players, ect.) and place them in a separate bin to be scanned. Depending on the type of security they have, they will either use a lower setting, a special scanner that is safer for that sort of thing, or they will do a hand check or some combination of the three. Either way, you don't want those bad boys sitting at the bottom of your carry on. Well not if you want to avoid the man with the latex gloves. :poly122:

Segreto · Mar 2011

I always keep everything electronic on my person or in my carryon bag. I've taken multiple hard drives, laptops and other thing with me and have had no proble. Its a hassle during security but you'll have the peace of mind that it won't get tossed around/stolen/ or lost.

XenoKratios · Mar 2011

If you're really worries, wrap the HDD in something safe (bubble wrap or a fluffy wuffy towel) and put it in a ceramic container.

sprunghunt · Mar 2011

If they're portable hard drives they'll be designed to be hard to break. So you should just go the carry on route. You could also see if you can get your hands on one of those anti-static bags to protect them.

Autocon · Mar 2011

i would never ever trust an airline with anything important like my harddrive and such. so my incidents of things getting lost, stolen or broken. having it on your person means you know you can keep an eye on it and make sure something unfortunate dosnt happen.

its not even a hassle through security. the max you have to do is take out your laptop if you are bringing one and then send that through and put it back in your bag. no problem

PolyHertz · Mar 2011

Last time I brought a hard drive with me and putting it through one of those x-ray machines it never worked again. 120gb of data lost

Lennyagony · Mar 2011

I always carry them on, am always questioned about them, bomb scan thing, belt and shoes ...

Many flights and no problem with my data yet

Shaffer · Mar 2011

Carry on many times through x-ray and whatever, seagate and WD never any problems with data loss. Have had half a dozen laptops over the years go with me as well so if I were to end up somewhere with a broken drive I would probably suspect it was hit in transport.

ikken · Mar 2011

I carry portable drives in my hand luggage, and huge external drives in their factory boxing in the suitcase. Remember to put them on the bottom of the suitcase and stack some clothing or smth on top of them, so they don't bounce around inside the suitcase.

portable ones haven't raised any questions so far, and my two trusty lacie drives are doing good too.

East · Mar 2011

Yeah, last time I flew I transported 5 regular hard drives stacked, bubbled-wrapped, and taped together in my hand luggage, I was taken aside.

I expected this, so when I opened my backpack I pulled the drives out, showed them, and said, "I'm guessing this is what alerted you?" The guy nodded, "Yeah, that was it. It's fine," and that was that.

I'm sure a bunch of drives stacked like that creates quite a strange image when x-rayed.

Hard drives & airports - carry on, or pack 'em?

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