Best Way For Someone To Mail Me A Hard Drive From The Usa

[rideswings]

I need my office in the USA to send me 2 hard drives as soon as possible. Its not the hard drives I need but its the data thats on them. Can anyone tell me the best way for me to get them here quickly? US Global Express Guaranteed will cost around $125 but what I am more concerned about is when they might arrive (US Mail promises 1-3 days which is highly unlikely) and will I be notified that they are here? I am staying in a hotel in Patong Phuket which further complicates things. Will they deliver to a hotel? I inquired of Fedex and they were around $300 for the same service.

I have a feeling that it will take more like 5-7 days to get here and then get held up in customs somewhere, and if I am ever notified that the package has arrived I will be expected to pay a huge amount for import tarriffs. Am I far away from the truth? The drives are valued at $450, any idea how much I will be expected to pay?

If I cant get them here soon, I will just have to do without them but it will be a real hardship.

Thanks!

Edited April 8, 2009 by rideswings

[think_too_mut]

I need my office in the USA to send me 2 hard drives as soon as possible. Its not the hard drives I need but its the data thats on them.

If it is your office, mounting the drives and making them available as shared, then you download what you need.

Do you need all their space at your new PC?

Still, today, in the age of the Internet, it is faster to ship 1 PetaByte of data (physical disks) from San Francisco to Sydney by a freighter ship (17 days) than over the Internet.

[rideswings]

Think - I tried to download a bunch of files through a peer-to-peer connection and it took me one hour for 40 megabytes to upload it on that side and download it on this side. I have around 8 or 10 gigs i need to have access to asap. Im not a computer geek so if anyone out there is, please help me find a way to do this.

If not, Im still open to opinions as to whether it is feasible to Glbal Air Mail the drives here.

Thanks.

[Tywais]

Think - I tried to download a bunch of files through a peer-to-peer connection and it took me one hour for 40 megabytes to upload it on that side and download it on this side. I have around 8 or 10 gigs i need to have access to asap. Im not a computer geek so if anyone out there is, please help me find a way to do this.

If not, Im still open to opinions as to whether it is feasible to Glbal Air Mail the drives here.

Seems cheaper and safer to put them on a 16GB Flash drive and sending it by US Postal Global Express. As for reliability, I've used Global Express several times shipping from the US with no problems.

[phazey]

Dual layer DVD's can hold 9GB....singles 4.5GB. Safer doing it that way IMHO.

[h90]

Dual layer DVD's can hold 9GB....singles 4.5GB. Safer doing it that way IMHO.

16 GB MicroSD are much smaller I think you can put 30 in a matchbox.

For shipping whatever I recommend FedEx UPS, DHL. Declaring them at low value.

I wouldn't put something top secret on them.

[rideswings]

Tywais, did you have to pay any import taxes on what you received? Can you tell me if you actually received the item in 1-3 days as they claim? Did they deliver to your door?

Phazey, I am really not good at figuring this out, any idea how long it takes to burn 15gb of data on to dvd's? that would be cheaper than a flash drive, but time an element...

h90 - I dont even know what a microsd is... is it a flash drive? Have you used feded UPS or DHL before? Can you tell me what their realistic shipping times might be to to Phuket?

Thanks folks!

[surface]

This is a microSD

http://windowsonthego.files.wordpress.com/...small-micro.jpg

A 16GB compact flash card would work as well and be about half the price, at $25 or so.

They should both come with a plastic case to keep it intact, but should be put in a padded envelope or small box for added protection. Shipping shouldn't be much more than $30 or so.

I'd also encrypt whatever you send to be on the safe side. Truecrypt would be good for that. http://www.truecrypt.org/

With my true DSL connection I get about 1Mb to the states, which would get you 10GB in a 24hour period. You would just need somebody knowledgeable over there to get the files on an ftp site with a reliable connection of 512kb - 1mb of upstream bandwidth.

Edited April 8, 2009 by surface

[Tywais]

Tywais, did you have to pay any import taxes on what you received? Can you tell me if you actually received the item in 1-3 days as they claim? Did they deliver to your door?

None (taxes) using Global Express, but could be less lucky with UPS or Fedex. I've only used regular US Global Express and took around 5 days due to having to go out to the provinces. And delivered directly to my office. One issue and that is Thai New Years is Monday - Wednesday next week and could delay it further.

[rideswings]

Thanks TY. I forgot about next week and the mail service. Should delay things as you said...

[Carmine6]

Think - I tried to download a bunch of files through a peer-to-peer connection and it took me one hour for 40 megabytes to upload it on that side and download it on this side. I have around 8 or 10 gigs i need to have access to asap. Im not a computer geek so if anyone out there is, please help me find a way to do this.

If not, Im still open to opinions as to whether it is feasible to Glbal Air Mail the drives here.

Thanks.

If you're comfortable having it go through an intermediary, try an online backup service. Someone on the US end would "backup" the files. You then download them. I use this service to keep my 3 computers synchronized for some files and backed up for others. Each computer can be set up to sync different folders.

You would download the software on both PCs, set up both on the same account and then you can pick and choose which folder(s) to backup. It is not transferring right then like peer to peer. It is a backup on the US end to their servers. Then a download on your end. Should be a lot faster than peer to peer. At any rate, you could sync (download) at your leisure.

There's no complicated selection or anything required. It's automated once you select the folder(s) you want to backup/sync. Free trial for 45 days so you could test the speed to see if it's liveable.

Encrypt the files if concerned.

https://www.sugarsync.com/products/sync_pricing.html

[steffi]

Goes without saying that if you should encrypt the contents of the data.

Either with Truecrypt or some other WDE technology.

Think - I tried to download a bunch of files through a peer-to-peer connection and it took me one hour for 40 megabytes to upload it on that side and download it on this side. I have around 8 or 10 gigs i need to have access to asap. Im not a computer geek so if anyone out there is, please help me find a way to do this.

If not, Im still open to opinions as to whether it is feasible to Glbal Air Mail the drives here.

Thanks.

If you're comfortable having it go through an intermediary, try an online backup service. Someone on the US end would "backup" the files. You then download them. I use this service to keep my 3 computers synchronized for some files and backed up for others. Each computer can be set up to sync different folders.

You would download the software on both PCs, set up both on the same account and then you can pick and choose which folder(s) to backup. It is not transferring right then like peer to peer. It is a backup on the US end to their servers. Then a download on your end. Should be a lot faster than peer to peer. At any rate, you could sync (download) at your leisure.

There's no complicated selection or anything required. It's automated once you select the folder(s) you want to backup/sync. Free trial for 45 days so you could test the speed to see if it's liveable.

Encrypt the files if concerned.

https://www.sugarsync.com/products/sync_pricing.html

[farseer]

Personally, I would never send the hard drive to Thailand, by DHL, Fed or any other carrier, they seem to have a habit of presenting your parcel to the customs who then slap a heavy tax on it.

Just put the information on a memory stick or whatever, and send that via USA Priority post, I think the envelope costs around $10/12 and you will receive it in about 7 days.

[H2oDunc]

You can access the data on their computer via remote access. Just make a network connection between your computer and theirs and just connect to their computer and you can then access the data as you would on your own. Would that not work ? Im sure Riemar would be able to tell you better than me. Good luck

[Daffy D]

Erm! Just a thought, would hard drives actually still work after being thrown about by the postal services of two countries?