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From: guest@vu-vlsi.UUCP (visitors)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Do You Protect Portables/Disks in Air Travel?
Message-ID: <1000@vu-vlsi.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 24-Jul-87 19:37:24 EDT
Article-I.D.: vu-vlsi.1000
Posted: Fri Jul 24 19:37:24 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 25-Jul-87 17:52:36 EDT
References: <862@dasys1.UUCP>
Reply-To: 164485913@excalibur.UUCP (Mark Schaffer)
Organization: Villanova Univ. EE Dept.
Lines: 28
Keywords: portables disks x-ray metal detector

In article <862@dasys1.UUCP> axelson@dasys1.UUCP (Kevin Axelson) writes:
>Can disk data be damaged by magnetic fields encountered during commercial air
>travel (e.g. from screening devices or elsewhere)?
>
>If so, what is the best tactic for reducing the risk?  Does anyone take extra-
>ordinary measures with their hard-disk equipped laptops?
>
From what I understand about this topic, it is not so much the x-ray screening
devices and the like that can damage the data on the disk as the conveyor-belt
machine that is used to send all of the stuff through the x-ray machine.
The conveyor-belt has quite a large motor, and if your disks travel over the
motor, the data stored on them may be altered.

I am not certain on the effects of this equipment on electronic devices such
as portable computeres.

Anyhow, I have found that the best way to avoid the damage (at least to the
data on the disks) is to have them inspected by a security guard and not placed
near the scanning machines.

 
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