Forum: travel.stackexchange.com
Tags: <air-travel><electronic-items>
Title: How to safely transport external hard drives during air travel?
Question: I plan to take a few external hard drives from Boston to Paris (air travel). How can I safely transport them? Beyond backing them up, bubble wrapping them and taking them as in cabin-luggage, what else can I do to reduce the likelihood of damage? I am mostly afraid of screening machines and in-flight vibrations.

Answers:
sents: text: External drives (or internal ones - same drive, different case) will have zero problems with commercial air travel.
text: X-rays don't affect them, and any in-flight vibrations capable of damaging a disk drive will also destroy the airplane.
text: Now that's assuming it's turned off.
text: Running drives don't like to be knocked around, but that applies on your desk too.
text: As Ital mentioned altitude is a factor for spinning drives, but the altitude limits are well above standard cabin pressure.
text: If the yellow masks pop out of the ceiling it's time to put your computer away anyway, as you will be landing very soon.
text: So unless you drop it down the stairs, or it falls off the baggage cart and gets run over by an aircraft tug, it will be fine.
answer_details: author: travel.stackexchange.com/users/12705/Paul
score: 32
sents: text: Quoting this , this , and this : External disks are no different that internal disks, in terms of media and components.
text: Laptops have been going through X-Ray machines for decades without incident, so I see no issue with external drives doing the same safely.
answer_details: author: travel.stackexchange.com/users/20420/ehacinom
score: 8
sents: text: It seems you have done your homework already.
text: The most crucial part is to avoid shocks which is why it is better to handle it yourself..
text: Turbulence can occur regardless, so it is best to keep hard disk drives padding in bubble-wrap or foam.
text: An anti-static bag would also help with an unexpected electric discharge, just to be safe.
text: The only additional caution I can suggest, is keeping them off .
text: This parks the head and is safer.
text: On most flights though, a hard-drive will generally operate safely as the cabin is pressurized quite well on modern aircraft except for very small ones.
text: When the pressure goes below about 68kpa, small-platter (2.5" & 1.8")
text: HDDs often fail.
text: A 3.5" one usually work as low as 56kpa.
text: This is why there is a maximum altitude rating of 10,000' for small drives and 15000' for standard ones.
answer_details: author: travel.stackexchange.com/users/4801/Itai
score: 3
sents: text: You can also use storage case bags that are specifically designed to carry external hard drives such as this one :
answer_details: author: travel.stackexchange.com/users/1810/Franck Dernoncourt
score: 3
sents: text: Been travelling worldwide with my 3 Samsung 500 gig HDD's for over 5 yrs now and never experienced a problem.
text: Airport scanners include LAX, JFK, HKIA, Ben Gurion, and the dreaded "heathrow" (don't go there!!).
answer_details: author: travel.stackexchange.com/users/20423/Rachel
score: 2
sents: text: Modern hard drives put their heads in a safe position when the device is powered off.
text: This reduces the chances that moderate shocks damage the platters, contrary to what happens when a spinning drive is shocked.
text: As pointed out, the shock required to damage a hard disk that is powered off is enough to show visible damage.
text: The disk may have to call from the baggage store towards the floor.
text: At that point, a lot of different hardware will be compromised as well.
text: I still recommend bubbles anyway.
answer_details: author: travel.stackexchange.com/users/39994/usr-local-ΕΨΗΕΛΩΝ
score: 1

Summary of the answers:
As with laptops, x-rays will not harm them and normal in-flight vibrations will not be enough to damage them. The most crucial part is to avoid shocks which is why it is better to handle it yourself. An anti-static bag will help with an unexpected electric discharge, and it may be worth keeping them off.
X-rays do not represent a hazard for hard drives. Shocks, on the other hand, can damage them as can static so an anti-static bag is recommended. It is considered a good idea to keep them switched off while flying.