Saturday 28 July 2018
Packing PC hardware and electronics for flights Part 2
Packing PC hardware and electronics for flights Part 2
Continued from Packing PC hardware and electronics for flights Part 1
3. Carry-on bag #2 and hard drives. Have you seen those jerks on flights who have these huge camping backpacks that take up the whole space in the overhead cabin? Or those "travelers" who carry these oversized faux-metal luggages and call them "carry-on"? My second carry-on bag is ant-sized compared to those and contains only a leather jacket (my Jones jacket), a document folder, numerous power cables and adapters for my portables, and the aforementioned 4 hard drives (2 of them SSDs).
Hard drives are arguably the most important electronic item after smartphones, even if youre not an IT professional. With numerous data backups stored or mirrored across my portable, desktop, and naked WD and Toshiba hard drives, I couldnt risk putting them on either of my check-in luggages or the box. Ive never lost luggage on a flight, but Id never risk my data that way, so the hard drives were safely tucked into anti-static wrap and bubble wrap in my 2nd carry-on bag.
Note: If you move around for work quite a bit, I dont recommend purchasing desktop hard drives for various reasons. For one thing, they arent designed for being stored and transferred from one location to another, much less a carry-on bag. For another, the power brick that Western Digital, Buffalo, and Seagate include with desktop hard drives add weight. Portable mechanical hard drives are much cheaper today, and although mobile SSDs are still expensive, theyre durable and will survive storage.
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| I took out the WD Blue hard drive from the Zotac ZBOX miniPC, wrapped it in anti-static packaging and bubble wrap so I can keep it in my second carry-on. |
4. My coat - In some ways, I was fortunate I was moving to a destination where it was currently winter, because it gave me the excuse to wear a coat with multiple pockets without looking too much like a douchebag. With my two carry-on bags packed to the brim, I put my excellent JVC HA-S500 oversized cans in one of my coat pockets, and stuffed my beloved Kindle Fire HD 8 in another. My Plantronics Backbeat Go 2 was in a smaller pocket, as was my adapter for 2-prong audio jacks (for airline seats). Although I would have preferred to have my khaki pockets empty, I kept my trusty Moto G4 Plus there too.
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| The great but somewhat bulky JVC HA-S500 goes to my jacket; the Sony desktop headset goes to my check-in luggage. |
Note: I made the mistake of not putting my Kindle Fire HD 8 into one of my carry-on bags after getting onboard the craft, thinking I can get some reading done. The result was my leaving the Fire HD 8 on the aircraft and having to pick it up at the airport three days later.
5. Check-in shipping box - LED monitors are generally affordable today, but finding the model that fit your needs can be hard in certain countries. Moreover, Ive had the AOC T2264M 22" LED TV for three years now and find it an excellent display with all the connectors I need (2 HDMI, VGA, coaxial, and legacy component connectors). So, along with my rice cooker, I secured the AOC display in a shipping box and padded it with bubble wrap, styrofoam, and my winter clothes. I also used 12 plastic coat hangers as shock absorbers.
In some ways, using a shipping box was a mistake, but unavoidable because I really didnt have much left to pack. I was slapped with incredibly painful excess baggage charges despite the box generally being light (less than 15 kg). Moreover, the rice cooker didnt survive the constant transfers across three airports. The AOC display shrugged off the flight and worked without issues when I arrived at my destination.
Note: The rice cooker technically still works but the circuit switch that triggers the coil broke. Im pretty sure the rice cooker would have come away unscathed if my flight hadnt been delayed and the box carrying the AOC display and rice cooker didnt have to go through several transfers at Hong Kong international airport. As it turned out, I should have just left the rice cooker and saved a couple of dollars in excess weight - the local Kmart had a cheap rice cooker on sale at my destination.
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| The 22" AOC LED TV is portable enough for the itinerant, struggling IT professional moving from one place to another. |
Two important points should be mentioned regarding using a medium-sized box and checking it in on your flight:
- In some check-in counters, they accept the shipping box in the conveyer belt. However, other airports consider a medium-sized shipping box as irregular or oversized and have to be checked in separately in the oversized area.
- In Asia, expect airport staff to puncture a corner of the box. They do this to check if drugs are being illegally transported in the package. In most cases, the puncture is small enough not to affect the contents. In my case, my winter jacket quickly closed out the small hole the airport staff made during airport transfer.
