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From: jay@splut.UUCP (Jay Maynard)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Do You Protect Portables/Disks in Air Travel?
Message-ID: <19@splut.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 30-Jul-87 02:24:20 EDT
Article-I.D.: splut.19
Posted: Thu Jul 30 02:24:20 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 6-Aug-87 07:17:34 EDT
References: <862@dasys1.UUCP> <695@uhccux.UUCP>
Organization: Confederate Microsystems, League City, Texas
Lines: 31
Keywords: portables disks x-ray metal detector
Summary: Well, the Compaq Plus isn't a laptop, but...

In article <695@uhccux.UUCP>, todd@uhccux.UUCP (The Perplexed Wiz) writes:
> In article <862@dasys1.UUCP> axelson@dasys1.UUCP (Kevin Axelson) writes:
> >Can disk data be damaged by magnetic fields encountered during commercial air
> >travel (e.g. from screening devices or elsewhere)?
> 
> I've heard/read conflicting opinions on this one.

So have I, but the net result is that, for me, it's simply too much of a
pain to recover from that I didn't take the risk.

> >If so, what is the best tactic for reducing the risk?  Does anyone take extra-
> >ordinary measures with their hard-disk equipped laptops?
> 
> I don't have a hard disk in my laptop (unfortunately).  I adopted a
> very conservative approach some years ago.  I simply ask the security
> people to hand check my computer and disks.  I have never had any of
> them refuse this request.

Supposedly, they're not allowed to. I took the same approach with my Compaq
Plus, which, while not a laptop, did take some airplane flights with me.
Most of the time, I was simply asked to drop the keyboard off the front of
the machine, thereby showing the screen/drives to the person. I was asked to
power the machine up at Dulles (they had an outlet right next to the table
at the security station, and I set it up there; all they wanted was to see
DOS start up), and was asked to remove the top cover at Raleigh/Durham (not
a difficult operation on a Compaq).
-- 
>splut!<...Jay Maynard, K5ZC | uucp: ...!seismo!soma!uhnix1!sugar!splut!jay
"Don't ask ME about Unix...  | GEnie: JAYMAYNARD            (...e-i-e-i-o!)
I speak SNA!"                | CI$: 71036,1603   FidoNet: SysOp @106/64
The opinions herein are shared by neither of my cats, much less anyone else.