Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ukma!rutgers!att!pegasus!psrc
From: psrc@pegasus.ATT.COM (Paul S. R. Chisholm)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Diskettes under X-Ray
Summary: It's not the X-rays, it's the magnets?
Message-ID: <2845@pegasus.ATT.COM>
Date: 30 Apr 89 05:02:21 GMT
References: <10570@netnews.upenn.edu>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 26

In article <10570@netnews.upenn.edu>, harnyo@grad1.cis.upenn.edu writes:
> Is there anyone who loses his diskette data because of the X-ray
> machine in the airport ? How do you then go around it ?

I hear it's not the X-rays themselves that do the damage.  Instead,
it's the big magnets used to generate the X-rays.

I've never had a problem with taking a box of disks out of my luggage,
opening the box, and having it hand-inspected.  When I was really
paranoid (carrying back-up software for a trade show), I had one set of
disks in my carry-on bag, and another in someone else's carry-on, and
a third shipped with the hardware.

> Also, if you send diskette through mail, wouldn't that automatically
> goes through X-ray machine as well ?

I doubt it.  You can mail exposed film, and that's got to be more
sensitive to X-rays than magnetic media.  (Yeah, I know the X-ray guys
at the airport say their machines won't fog your film.  They're from
the government, they're here to help us.-)

> Andy, harnyo@eniac.seas.upenn.edu

Paul S. R. Chisholm, AT&T Bell Laboratories
att!pegasus!psrc, psrc@pegasus.att.com, AT&T Mail !psrchisholm
I'm not speaking for the company, I'm just speaking my mind.