Wipe Out At The Airport!

[keencenturion]

Hi all,just a warning and inquisition with regard to what happened to my computer after going thru the usual security checks at LHR.The officer at the entry end of the security check asked me if I had a laptop in my bag,to which I replied,yes,he told me that I had to take it out of the bag and place it in a separate tray,as we do with other articles carried.I asked him why this was so and he said,"new government instruction"all went well as I thought,until I came to check if my laptop was ok.The only things that worked was the power light and the hard drive access light,apart from that totally dead,also my memory stick had been completely wiped clean.I took the Laptop PC to see what could be done with it and the tech told me that the hard drive was completely US.

As anyone else experienced the same happenings,I for one won't be taking a laptop through for the same thing to happen,although my digi camera was perfectly ok having gone through the same procedure.

Best of luck

KC

[autonomous_unit]

They've been doing this separate X-ray of laptops at US airports for ages. However, this is just to give them a cleaner picture of the laptop and bag contents with less jumble of circuits and wires. The X-rays penetrate a bag easily (unless it is made of thick lead), so the laptop gets no worse exposure in the separate tray.

The X-ray shouldn't affect a hard drive, but it is wise to turn off all electronics before sending them through since the X-ray could theoretically scramble the state of their digital memories. For example, do not suspend a laptop to RAM, but hibernate it to disk or shut it down completely. This wouldn't harm the data on the hard drive. It would take a pretty good mechanical shock to harm a hard drive.

You may have just experienced an unfortunate coincidence... I've taken laptops through airport security hundreds of times and never had a problem develop, as have all of my colleagues. The usual problem is dropping it or forgetting it in a pub.

[girlx]

the hard drive was completely US

what does that mean?

[britmaveric]

1000x had my laptop screened (been doing it for years) and I've had no issues, I think you have a one off!

Edited February 18, 2006 by britmaveric

[Tywais]

1000x had my laptop screened (been doing it for years) and I've had no issues, I think you have a one off!

I agree with Brit, most likely coincidental. The scanner will produce two things: low level x-rays (short term) that could bump an electron or two in the memory stick but not erase it and magnetic fields that are fairly confined so that shouldn't be a factor for the hard disk (used to be a problem with floppy disks). I work at a nuclear research facility where we produce x-rays thousands of times higher then the airport scanners and have electronics in the area (including microprocessors) that are exposed for months. Our CCD cameras do start to deteriorate (dead pixels) but only after prolonged exposure.

[keencenturion]

the hard drive was completely US

what does that mean?

Sorry girlx for the abbreviation,US is short for "unserviceable",ok?

KC

[Gary A]

I too have had my laptop through the x-ray machine many times and it suffered no damage at all. I agree it was some sort of coincidence.