[Thunderbird]

Is it safe to put a hard drive through the x-ray machine at the airport?

[mike one]

Originally posted by Thunderbird:
Is it safe to put a hard drive through the x-ray machine at the airport?

yes.

i've taken my blue g3 350 as carry on, and put it through an x-ray machine.
10's of thousands of laptops go through xray machines every day in this country.

[This message has been edited by mike one (edited 04-13-2001).]

[spicyjeff]

Hard drives are magnetic (electromagnetic radiation), X-RAYs are gamma radiation. The only think that you might need to work about in an X-RAY machine is photographic film. And the only thing that might affect your hard drive is the metal detector...but since you go through the metal detector and your Powerbook and carry-on goes through the X-RAY everything works out nicely. Not to mention the fact that the metal detector is way too weak to actually affect anything.

[elzinat]

a couple notes: x-rays are not gamma rays. they are both electromagnetic radiation (aka "light"), but the two terms correspond to different frequency ranges (or according to some definitions, whether the photon in question is emitted by an electron or an atomic nucleus, but that's another story ).
If you watch the little screen on the X-ray machine when your HD goes through, you will see it as a box. This is because the x-rays are not extremely energetic x-rays, and are reflected by the metal case of your drive. this case also provides magnetic shielding so the B-field perturbations inside are miniscule. so the metal case of the drive keeps the magnetic platters inside nice and safe .

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be happy!
-mac freak

[AlbertWu]

The only thing you might need to be worried about is the motors that power the conveyor belt. In that case, put the computer as close to the entrance as possible.

I didnt think of this and its an incredibly dumb idea, but it came up in one of the Pogue-Schorr discussions in MacWorld Mac Secrets, so I might as well bring it up here

dont worry. the magnets in the motors arent powerful enough to screw up your HD

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[Scott_H]

Sounds like elzinat knows some physics

If the X-rays did anything to the HD it would knock a few electrons lose from the disk. You'd have to knock a lot off all at once to cause any real damage. I guess the airport ones don't have high enough output for that.

I've used computers in a high radiation environment and haven't noticed any trouble with the disk.

[schalliol]

Most are safe, but some are not. I've had friends that put their machine through and their drive is messed up. I'd say don't put it through unless you have to. Most let you show them a booted machine to avoid passing it through, but I know the one in San José does not (but I felt safe there!).

They tell you to put film in there too, but not scientific stuff (really important) that shows that their not 100% sure all the time.