Tips for Travelling with a laptop

[fbrdphreak]

Just wondering about anyone's experience with taking their laptop through airports in the recent past. From the basic googling I've done, it seems as though X-Rays can and will harm a laptop, both from the conveyor belt x-ray and the hand wands. If anyone has any tips on travelling with a laptop through airports in general, I would greatly appreciate it. I DO NOT want to be w/out my Thinkpad for a week at the grandparent's house
I will be carrying it in my backpack that has a laptop pocket. I plan on carrying the rest of my carry-on stuff in this bag (Headphones, some CDs/DVDs, book, etc). Any insight will be appreciated

 

[Nonsequitur]

you will have to take your laptop out of whatever bag you have it in, and it will be xrayed separately.

i wouldn't worry about this fubaring anything. thousands of peeps have laptops xrayed daily without incident.

 

[Wuzup101]

Yeah, airport security is pretty good at taking care of your laptop. I wouldn't worry about it, just make sure to take it out of it's bag for them (if you don't and they xray your bag it's your fualt unfortunatly ). Also, keep your eyes on it when it's not in your hands. There are plenty of theives that hang out around airport terminals in some airports.

 

[whistleclient]

make sure you have it charged up. sometimes they make you power it up to show it's a functioning laptop.

 

[DeeSlanger]

How about SFF Shuttles in a backpack any problems ?

 

[fbrdphreak]

LOL, that sounds like it would set off some alarms.

 

[DeeSlanger]

Sorry , I'm not trying to HiJack your thread but , I was just curious if anyone transfers thier Shuttles W/ the Shuttle backpack through airport security.....


My father was a pilot w/amr for 30 yrs so ,I've been around the EU and Carribean several times , years ago. I am only going to AK but How is Security for transporting Innocent PC's

Alaska has major shipping cost s etc,etc....

 

[whistleclient]

i don't know about the shuttle. i took a portable hard drive with me once. they looked at me like i was a suicide bomber. one guy asked me to turn it on.

me: "ummmmm..."

 

[NewBlackDak]

I got trouble with a portable hdd once too. It's USB/firewire, and powers off the buss. THey asked me to turn it on, butit has no power cord, button, or switches.

 

[stingygrrl]

Originally posted by: NewBlackDak
I got trouble with a portable hdd once too. It's USB/firewire, and powers off the buss. THey asked me to turn it on, butit has no power cord, button, or switches.

so what did you do?

back to the topic.. I took a thinkpad thru security last week and it was no problem aside from those people putting their filthy fingers all over the clean case and then MY SHOES on top of it. We had about 5 of those tubs (there were 2 of us) and we had to take off our shoes and coats adn have purses inspected and all that. The worst thing was keeping an eye on it all because it's not like 1 person looks at it one by one. Someone grabs the laptop and takes it out of sight, someone is digging thru the purse, someone is wanding me... I know it's a little different bec we tend to carry more stuff than guys, but the worst fear for me was that something would disappear, either with those security people or other passengers. Security itself was no problem. They didn't ask me to turn it on or anything. Not sure what they did to it out of my sight but it wasn't very long, so my guess is that they swabbed it.

 

[NewBlackDak]

It is tool-less, so I opened it up, and showed them that it is actually a laptop hdd inside. That was enough to get through.

 

[deejayshakur]

this will be fun next week when i board the plan in SFO for hong kong with my dv1000. good thread, keep the tips/stories coming

 

[imported_Arden]

Someone mentioned swabbing? What is it? Internal/ External/ . I am new to all of this stuff. I look forward to comments. Regards

 

[phisrow]

Swabbing is where they take a sampling swab and rub it over various parts of the item in question, then send it through a scanner to look for explosive traces. With computers and similar they will usually just swab down the places you would expect traces to build up, vent holes, keyboards, etc. I've never tried to take a desktop of any size as carr on, so I don't know if they will try going internal on those.

 

[WackyDan]

I travel to 1 to 3 cities weekly and have done so for the last 6 years. You can imagine the scanning that my Thinkpad's have had over the years.

It is generally a myth that scanners and metal detectors hurt electronics. -least the ones in airports. I once watched a powerbook owner fight with security saying he had a letter from Apple that he could show them detailing that the scanner would destroy his iBook. They simple asked him whether he wanted to fly that day or not. Was kinda funny, but he held all of us up while arguing with the TSA supervisor.

 

[fbrdphreak]

These are all great tips people, let's keep this bumped up and maybe get a sticky. I think this info would be valuable for anyone who travels with a lappy!

 

[halfadder]

I took a windshield wiper with me once. Nobody in security even questioned it! (The driver's side wiper on my car tore apart just as I was parking it at the airport before I left on my trip... and I just happened to be near a Pep Boys auto parts store a few hours before I returned so I thought what the heck, bought it, and brought it along)

 

[Philippine Mango]

Yea actually one time I purchased a Maxtor 120GB drive at a frys in San Diego and didn't open it yet so on the way back home I just carried it, put it through x-ray and I was on my way, no wierd looks or anything.. I have had my laptop go through the x-rays at least 20 times and it's still functioning fine (Circa 2000).

Damn I used to carry a box cutter and screw drivers in my laptop case because somtimes I would (open boxes like intended) and fix my laptop with the mini screw drivers. So I've had these items in my case for about 2 years (1999 when I had a even older laptop then switch it with my dad's which is the circa 2000 one) and was very used to bringing that stuff on the plane, going on trips etc... So in 2002 I was going on a trip with my folks (yes you should be thinking of 9/11 right about now) I was at the airport going about the usual and my dad asked me, "Do you have anything that security will look for". I said, no, um well I have box cutters.... And he's like, "YOU should KNOW NOT TO HAVE THEM ESPECIALLY AFTER 9/11.... So I took em and gave them to the security guard and left then went to the x-ray and they found the screw drivers so they took it away Man did that suck, two tools I used the most often...

 

[halfadder]

I don't normally carry tools in my laptop case... but you mean to say that they'll even take away screwdrivers?? Thanks for the heads up, I'll make sure not to ever have my favorite multi-tip screwdriver in my carry-on!

 

[kami333]

Shuttles XPCs are not a problem, they will probably open your bag to look at them (25% chance from my experience) though I've never had them open the case.

I also carry one of those Buffalo LinkStation NAS with me and I've never had a problem with it either, one guy even identified it and asked me how I liked it.