Travelling with the HVX - How to secure the backup HDDs?

Spartacus

Spartacus

Veteran
Hey,
going down to Spain in a couple of weeks, to film some instructional videos and seminars.
Now, I will bring a couple of 500Gb drives and was wondering if only putting them in a Peli case is save enough.
Even with the foam there probably is a lot of throwing around at the airport, isn´t it?
In tape-days I didn´t care of course, but now...
So how do you do it?
Are there special air/gel cusions out there or how can i get some extra shock absorbation?
Thanks!
 
Agreed. Carry on. Usually a Pelican or Storm Case but have also used a backpack. They are too precious to leave for someone else to handle.
Jim
 
Well,
the HVX with Bag and the MacBookPro are my carryon, same goes for the second cameraperson and i´m concerned if they let us bring all that...
BTW were speaking of 3 G-Raids, 2 eSata enclosures and 6 HDDs...
 
Strap the MacBookPro to the camera case with bungee cords to make it appear as one piece than put all of your hard drives in a carry on size roll on suitcase. G-Raids and E-Sata's are about three inches tall so you are talking about 15 inches there and the 6 HDDs are probably another 8-10 inches. So you can certainly fit everything in an overnight size roll on bag. Be sure to line the bag with foam for extra protection and put a big fragile sticker on it.

Jim
 
Just shot in Mexico last week and the HD's were carry on. There were three of us travelling so we could easily split cam, laptops, and HD's between us. Probably helped that my laptop case looks like a hardshell backpack, which the airline seems to count differently. I do conceed that each airline has it's own set of arcane rules, that they can change at the drop of a hat.


G.
 
i most always transport my HDDs in with my clothing. all the undies, socks and shirts provide cheap shock absorbtion. however if they are in a peli case, i tend to also wrap the drive in bubble wrap or soft foam before securingit in the case as the recent gen peli foam is too stiff for my tastes
 
Consider, if you will, how a hard drive is shipped from manufacturer to wholesaler, to retailer, to your door. It is flown or shipped across the seas, trucked from warehouse to store, maybe flown from online store via ups or fedex to thier depot and then trucked to your door. If you retain the original foam or pack it in a pelican case with shock absorbent foam, then there shouldn't be a problem checking it as luggage on a flight if you can't carry it on.
 
I have a STM computer bag that's slim and a camera backpack by Apex = the computer bag is 3/way and have had no problem with airlines as carry-on.
 
Always travel with drives as carryon. It happens a lot that your luggage travels another direction because of wrong routing on airport. Then you are in Spain and your drives are in Zambia!!!!!!
 
Always travel with drives as carryon. It happens a lot that your luggage travels another direction because of wrong routing on airport. Then you are in Spain and your drives are in Zambia!!!!!!
 
Can you bring a HDD into a "travel-state" ?

I mean: I remember that you had to put a card into the FloppyDisc drives while carrying them around - so they couldn't brake....

Is there such a position for the laser or whatever that makes HDDs more "shakeable" ? Perhaps THAT is also the state that a HDD is in, when it's been sold and shipped...... before its first use. Perhaps the computer may lock and unlock it somehow?
 
I just found this little program to "park" the HDD's head in a ideal position. The programmer says that after having parked the head with this program, transport was more secure....

Website with program

The program has to be modified, because it's for internal HDDs.

The point is, that it will park the head above the LAST track of the HDD. So a minimum of damage will occur if the head leaves its park-position. Whithout the program, the head can cause a far higher damage if it's unluckily parked (off-position) above the FIRST track.
 
Last edited:
cici said:
I just found this little program to "park" the HDD's head in a ideal position. The programmer says that after having parked the head with this program, transport was more secure....

Website with program

The program has to be modified, because it's for internal HDDs.

The point is, that it will park the head above the LAST track of the HDD. So a minimum of damage will occur if the head leaves its park-position. Whithout the program, the head can cause a far higher damage if it's unluckily parked (off-position) above the FIRST track.
Click to expand...
Sounds good, seems to be a PC app only, and I´m on the Mac...
Aber danke!
 
I ALWAYS back up all my footage, so I have at least two hard drives. One goes in luggage in the middle of all the clothes. the other comes on the plane with me and given the VIP treatment like shoot tapes..
 
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