I’ve been on work assignment for several months in Iowa, and have set up my desktop computer in my hotel room, and just either left it there when I went home, or put it in my car when I went home for the holidays.
Now this weekend, I’m flying home, and then elsewhere, for an extended period, and I want to bring the desktop home for good, and return with a laptop.
What’s the best way to go about doing this? Is this even safe for my computer? Will packaging it up securely with peanuts/blankets be enough? Or is this stupid?
My younger brother took his desktop hard drive with him when he moved from TN to Seattle. Packed it into his carry on (I’m pretty sure it was the carry-on bag, not the checked bag) with cushioning around it and was careful about not knocking it around. He shipped the monitor out seperately though, since he was going to have access to a monitor at his new place until his arrived.
If you can take the hard drive as a carry on, I think you’d be ok. I don’t know what you could do with the monitor though.
I flew once with a Sun workstation that was loaded with the software we needed for a demo. The company that we were visiting had the monitor. We had a special padded piece of luggage for it. It fit into the overhead compartment. It was a major pain, but it got there okay.
The only problem was this was when the security people asked you to turn on laptops. I had to explain that turning on this thing would involve plugging it into the wall, and all you would see was a light go on.
Would it be possible to bring it to a UPs store or mailboxes etc. store and thave them ship it for you? That would take care of the monitor also. I don’t think you could bring the monitor on the plane, and I certainly would not want to check it. If it is just the tower, that should fit in a carryon bag with no problems.
I took a desktop computer overseas a couple years ago (post 9/11) and it was no problem. It went through the x-ray machine, fit under the seat in front of me, and it was easy to show that it wasn’t a dangerous object (mine opened on the side). It got wicked heavy when I was carrying it through customs, though. I was worried about it jostling around and dinging up the hard drives or whatever, but that didn’t seem to be a problem either. So I’d say don’t worry, just carry it on with you.
Ideally. Problem is, I’m only going to be home Friday and Saturday night, so the timing of getting it delivered probably wouldn’t be workable.
I’ll probably just put my tower in a padded carry-on bag, and bring it on board with me.
Now the question of the monitor: If I put it in a box, stuffed styro peanuts and blankets around it, and taped the hell out of it, would it survive being checked?
I flew with my mini-tower in 2000 without many problems. I wrapped it in two layers of thick bubble wrap, and taped it all up, then tied some rope around it so it was easy for me to carry.
It when I got home, the PC did not work… turned out one stick of RAM had fallen out. Easy to fix if you’re not shy about talking the side off your PC.
As for the monitor, the original packaging is always the best, but mosy people throw that out. The best thing to do is ensure it is wrapped / packed extremely TIGHTLY in a box of a suitable size, then tape the box shut. It’s most important that stuff cannot rattle around in the box (and that the device is well padded inside). You can screw up newspaper for small holes, but that’s not enough for larger areas.
I took a desktop computer on the plane from the US to S. Korea a few times. I just packed the monitor and the tower in their original boxes with the styrofoam packing, checked them at the counter, and all went well.
There was a slight bit of excitement at the customs counter in Korea once, however. A co-worker had asked me to bring him some pipe tobacco from the states, and in a flurry of last-minute packing I had stuffed the plastic bag of non-wacky tobaccy in the monitor box (no where else to put it, and I figured it would be just a touch more padding for the monitor…). By the time I got to Kimpo Airport I had forgotten all about it. The customs inspector found it during his routine examination, and yanked it out with an almost ethereal expression of AH HA!!! on his face… I guess he figured he was in for a bonus or something after busting the notorious drug-smuggler Astroboy14. Poor guy seemed so crestfallen after I explained that it was pipe tobacco…
Forget lugging the monitor around. Seriously, you do not want to try to deal with both that and the case and your other luggage and whatever else you might have with you, like your boarding pass.
UPS is your friend. Well, maybe not them, but even the postal service would be better than trying to carry anything but the tiniest monitor around in an airport. SHIP the monitor home. Ship the case, too, if you want, but the case alone shouldn’t be too big a problem.
Slight hijack: The lan party bag linked above looked pretty cool, and I’ve been looking for something like that myself. Anybody know any good sites where I might order something similar? Maybe one for the monitor as well?
