Suggestions for transport of drives?

I am moving overseas at the end of March and want to take an eSATA RAID-5 enclosure with me. It is a Sans Digital TR5-UT with 5 4TB drives in it. I will bring it with me on the plane. What is the safest way to carry the drives? Should I pull them from the enclosure, wrap in bubble wrap, put them in a box inside checked baggage? I don't believe I will have enough room to carry them on the plane with me - I have my laptop and DSLR camera bag going on board with me.

 

How important is the data? How important is it that it actually gets there?

Depending on the above, I would ship either the Sans Digital by UPS/FedEx or your camera bag to your destination (have someone ship it after you've arrived there).

Either way, if the data is important, make a backup and leave with a friend for a while.

Myself? The computer and the raw HDD's would be on my person at all times. Always.

A pelican case would also be a consideration if you want it shipped (whether with you in the airplane or courier) - for either the camera or the drives/computer.

 

I bought a new laptop/DSLR backpack that I can combine the contents together without damage. That makes it so I can hand-carry the hard drives in another bag. The drives will be wrapped in bubble-wrap so they should be fine. The Enclosure will be in it's original packaging and in one of my 2 checked bags.

 

I've taken 3.5" and 2.5" drives on planes many times and never had an issue. In my check-in luggage I have just made sure that they were in the center of my bag. I've had drives inside external enclosures. plastic drive blisters, and also loose inside anti-static bags. If they were loose I made sure that they weren't banging into each other. In your carry-on it is definitely easier to keep a close eye on them and you can worry less about them getting banged up, but you still want to make sure that you have something between the drive and the bottom or side of your bag/briefcase/backpack. You might want to look at plastic hard drive carrying cases. They are made of a softer yet rigid plastic and keep a good amount of air space on all sides of the drive. There are different sizes for carrying single or multiple 2.5" or 3.5" drives. You can find them on Newegg, Ebay, and Amazon. About a year ago was the last time I traveled with a 3.5" drive. I switched to 2.5" drives just because of ease of portability since they come in 2TB form now.

 

I am going to have them on the eSATA enclosure trays, placed into anti-static bags and then wrapped with bubble wrap/foam for transport on a carry-on bag. Does this sound good to you?

 

How much will it all weigh along with the other items in your other carry-on baggage?

One of my friends used to travel with a big coat with large pockets (each good for at least one 3.5" HDD) as a way to surreptitiously carry more weight than would be allowed in a bag.

John