Air travel vs hard drives

Moonburnt · Post by **Moonburnt** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 4:55 pm

I'm wondering if those of you who fly with computer gear take any special precautions? Shortly I'm going to be flying with a total of 5 hard drives in my carry-on pack. In other words every single byte of virtual property I own will be in the same place at the same time and I'm slightly paranoid about that prospect.

For one thing, it probably looks a bit shady carrying that many hard drives, y'know "What have they got on them, are they really hard drives at all, can we please hold on to these sir?" And I worry that stray magnetism from the metal detector wand could wipe them out all at once. Would it be better to put (some of) them in check-in luggage instead or is that stupider? I've even heard of the magnetism of the motor that drives the conveyor belt through the x-ray machine being blamed for data loss.

Tell me your stories. Preferably the boring uneventful kind where everyone's data lives happily ever after.

Pitch Black · Post by **Pitch Black** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 12:40 am

Hi Gabe, All good news here, I've had no probs with my data on many different HD's over the last 6 years of semi-frequent flying to gigs. I put all HD's and lappies thru the carry-on X-ray conveyor. But if you're taking ALL your data, it might be best to take an additional HD with the super-redundant-absolutely-must-survive-data backed up (several times?)

"Data that doesn't exist in two places doesn't exist"

cheers mate
paddy

Angstrom · Post by **Angstrom** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 1:00 am

I'm assuming you absolutely have to take all your data with you

Depending on how rich you are - or how friendly your friends are.

get a biiig drive of some kind, possibly a lend of a caddy from a recording studio pal. and before you leave put a ton of stuff on it backed up - as much of your 5 drives as you can, leave it in NZ (or wherever you are going from)

That way at least you know there is a backup somewhere. When you finally arrive at your destination - assuming all is well, you could just ask your friend to wipe the drive if it is theirs ... or send it to you if you used a big IDE job.

Drives are pretty cheap and data is gone when it is gone.

RE: Pitch Blacks "data in two places" .. my girlfriend always tells me three places! because I always have DVD backups in the house next to my computer.. which is not that useful if the whole place burns down.

sweetjesus · Post by **sweetjesus** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 2:48 am

i've gotten on about 15 - 20 flights over the last 2 years and have taken my notebook with me everytime, no dramas....

MrYellow · Post by **MrYellow** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 2:53 am

Anyone know what it is they do when they take u'r laptop to be inspected by
a separate guy at the x-ray machines?

They sit in on a table, open it up and look at it for a bit.... from what I can
gather.... seems odd..... If it was a bomb, looking at it from the outside
isn't going to tell you that..... Maybe they weigh it and compare to a
database.......

-Ben

MrYellow · Post by **MrYellow** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 3:07 am

http://mobileoffice.about.com/od/busine ... safety.htm

Metal detectors on the other hand, can cause damage and request
politely that Security/Customs do not use the metal detector but do a hand
check instead.

turn it on to demonstrate to Security/Customs that the laptop is exactly
that – a functioning computer.

.....

This is a good reason to ensure that your laptop battery is kept charged.

Sounds gay..... sorry not PC.... Sounds "silly"....
Now that sounds gay for sure!

I know they use a number of different x-ray frequencies and filters to
pickup exposives and organics.... but still should be easy to beat and
design a killer laptop.... be it a bomb or firearm.

btw Laptop espionage is huge, a company laptop is a treasure trove of
confidencial information, I wouldn't be surprised if governments were taking
advantage of laptop checks to copy their harddrives. Given the US focus up
until 911 was purely on commercial spying, I wouldn't put it past em.

-Ben

Moonburnt · Post by **Moonburnt** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 2:24 pm

Pitch Black wrote:Hi Gabe, All good news here, I've had no probs with my data on many different HD's over the last 6 years of semi-frequent flying to gigs. I put all HD's and lappies thru the carry-on X-ray conveyor. But if you're taking ALL your data, it might be best to take an additional HD with the super-redundant-absolutely-must-survive-data backed up (several times?)

"Data that doesn't exist in two places doesn't exist"

cheers mate
paddy

Cheers Paddy, that's reassuring. Am off to spend "some time" (who knows?) in melbourne - that home away from home for kiwis

- so everything's gotta go.

Glad none of u have encountered any problems. I'll go ahead and carry them all but just to be sure, i think i will go for some "super redundancy" - probably the Angstrom method - leave a backup backup with someone back home then send it over later. It's kinda freaky how HDs can hold so much now, but they're still just as fragile!

Thanks all.