Flying with a bare hard drive

A

AngryJim

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 20, 2006
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Next Tuesday I'm flying out to meet up with a friend of mine and I'm bringing a hard drive full of data with me. What is the safest way? I'm having these nightmare scenarios run through my head where if I try to take it in carry on I'll be tackled out of line and have the drive taken away, never to be seen again. On the other hand, something about leaving it in my regular luggage makes me curious what will happen if my bag is inspected and some random agent isn't sure what to do with a bare drive. Any ideas/past experience?

I should specify I won't be traveling with a laptop, so a bare hard drive might end up looking slightly more suspicious.
 
I travel with 3.5" bare drives all the time. Sometimes 2 or 3 of them. I take them as carry on. I don't trust checking them in, they could fall out if my bag gets inspected (as a checked in bag). I've never been asked to take them out, they go through the x rays just fine.
 
Heh, I've taken crazier stuff than a HDD onto a plane (FPGAs that could pass for bombs on a movie set, lol)... HDDs are easily recognizable, and shouldn't cause any problems at all.
 
I have a related question: Are laptops allowed to be used on planes? Do they have AC power out for laptops or do they generally not have this?
 
yes laptops are allowed, however you have to turn the wireless card off.

Most planes will have some sort of power charger for use, however, these are DC and frequently require a specific plug that you would have to buy seperately. I don't know though because I've never bought one myself.
 
Hm... haven't flown domestic in a while, but you can probably call your airline up and ask if power plugs are available, and what type they are, so you can bring the necessary adapter. I know in business class you have standard AC plugs available. Hm... maybe seatguru.com has such info? /me too lazy to look.
 
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