Octopus Overlords

Okay, Tuesday morning I'm catching a flight to St. Louis to see me some World Series. It'll also be my first trip where I lug my laptop along. I've heard a bunch of second-hand tales that sound like Snopes material about Airport security detection devices (i.e. X-Rays and such) demagnetizing harddrives, and causing havoc with laptops.

I can't believe such stories are true....

....but anyone have any laptop travel tips for those of us doing the carry-on thing?

Thanks in advance!

triggercut wrote:Okay, Tuesday morning I'm catching a flight to St. Louis to see me some World Series. It'll also be my first trip where I lug my laptop along. I've heard a bunch of second-hand tales that sound like Snopes material about Airport security detection devices (i.e. X-Rays and such) demagnetizing harddrives, and causing havoc with laptops.

I can't believe such stories are true....

....but anyone have any laptop travel tips for those of us doing the carry-on thing?

Thanks in advance!

I always travel with my laptop. I have had 0 problems with it. You will have to remove your laptop when you go through security, and pass it through the xray. I suppose I can't say 100% for sure for all laptops but I have never had a problem. Good luck!

As long as your electronic stuff (i.e. cell phone, computer, credit cards) don't go through the metal detector you will be fine. Otherwise, the magnets in the detector will wipe them clean.

Metal detectors don't erase anything. I always have my wallet in my pants and usually my iPod and Clie in my pocket when I have traveled and never had any problems.

I have traveled all over the world with my laptop. There is one thing that is important. Get a good bag! Something that will hold all your cables easily. I also like lots of pockets. My current bag has a small pocket on the front, perfect for tickets, pens, and a passport. The back of it has a large expandable pocket that fits books and magazines in it easily.

Top load bags are nice also so you can pull out the laptop quickly and easily for security.

Next time I travel I am thinking about getting a laptop/camera bag that has wheels. I saw one for about $130 that fit everything I could want in a nice easy to pull carry on size bag.