Korean Job Discussion Forums

[PeteJB]

I'm curious about this. I've done it once before, by putting the drive in the luggage (not carry-on) and popping it in a padded envelope for extra protection amongst the clothes. However I'm still concerned that if I take it through an airport again, it may get damaged by either scanners or the conveyor belts - is there much chance of this? I have just about ALL my important data on there right now and without a DVD burner at the moment, it's kind of difficult to backup large things.

Keep in mind this is an external hard drive I'm talking about. I don't think many people move around naked hard drives

[JongnoGuru]

[PeteJB]

Oh, I think you misunderstood. It's going with me on the plane (not carry-on..). It's not being sent via the post office. I have some CD for data. Online storage, well that depends on the cost..

[JongnoGuru]

[Zaria32]

Also remember that any suitcase in the belly of an airplane may well have several thousand pounds on top of it...

[Bigfeet]

Airport scanners don't generate enough magnetism to erase your data.

[PeteJB]

It's one of those hard shell suitcases, so no problem with even an elephant on it. Ok, well.. I'll just have to count my lucky stars. I can copy all important data to my laptop which I'm lending to a friend, and some CDs.. and I also have six month old backups on DVDs back home (where I'm going). The only things I have no backups of are some hard to find movies and dramas that I've yet to watch

[oskinny1]

Why don't you just carry it on if it is that important to you?

Another problem solved by me.

[PeteJB]

I thought you couldn't carry on that kind of equipment? Even when a laptop goes through a scanner they still ask for it to be switched to prove it's a laptop...

[OiGirl]

[bluelake]

If you had asked me that nineteen years ago, I really would have had an opinion...

Back in '89, when my wife, son and I moved back to Korea, I carried a 60MB hard drive (big capacity back then) with me in a briefcase (my computer was on its way over by ship). It came safely all the way from the States and three different flights. At Kimpo, when I was boarding a flight to Pohang, the security person said I had to check my hard drive in. I explained it was very delicate and it was hand-carried all the way from the States. The guy said (with a very snide tone), "Don't worry--it will be fine."

At Pohang, I went to the place where planeside checked items were coming out. I got there just in time to see my drive flying through the air... They just tossed everything from the plane door down to the ground. Needless to say, my drive wasn't worth diddly after that.

[pkang0202]

I threw my hard drive into my bookbag and took it on the plane. I didn't even need to take it out for customs. I just put my whole bag on the conveyer belt.

I din't wrap it in anything. It was being jostled around my book bag with a couple spindles of DVD's, computer cables, etc...

Computer hard drives aren't as fragile as you might think. Hell, i've dropped a couple on accident with no worries.

Usually, when you shut down your computer, your hard drive goes into a "locked" state when the read/write heads move away from the platter and get locked into position. This is to protect against the read/write heads scratching the platters during shock.

Some hard drives have accelerometers that detect a fall and will automatically move the read/write heads into this locked position.

[mindmetoo]

I did it no probs. Actually I might have even checked it. In the middle of a suitcase padded with about 1 foot of clothes on either side, no probs.

[Atavistic]

[samd]

Surely carry-on is the best way. Why risk having your checked bag lost or stolen or soaked in water?