Transportation of hard drives

[Iecur]

I will be traveling shortly from out the door here to my destination it's three flights and about 17 hours. I'm taking two hard drives with me and I was wondering what is the best method of transport ? Do I need to place them back into anti-static bags ? A friend of mine was telling me that when he was in his computer class his instructor informed them that not all bags are created equal ? By this I mean the ones that you bought your hardware in and that as soon as you open it the bags are useless probably even worse than just leaving components out on their own ? Would I have to go buy a new bag ? Has anyone heard anything different ? Would it be fine being transported in just a cardboard box or two ? Just in a backpack ?

Sorry if my grammar is a bit off and I'm sure the all these answers are online somewhere and I'm sure I even know an answer or two but my departure date is fast approaching too fast if you ask me. And I still have a ton of things to do prior to it..So any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated. If there is anything I forgot to mention or whatnot please please let me know and I'll try to clarify as soon as possible. Thank you for taking your time to read this and for any help that you might be able to provide.

 

[ucould2]

By this I mean the ones that you bought your hardware in and that as soon as you open it the bags are useless probably even worse than just leaving components out on their own ?

If the bag is intact no holes / tears / hard crush folds where there maybe a chance of splitting, the bag should work. The Anti Static Bag has to totally exclude the HDD from its surrounds not water proof, but near as, lets say dust proof Then into bubble wrap encasing in Cardboard finally.
enjoy you trip

 

[Iecur]

By tear what do you mean exactly ? I had to tear it open to get to the hard drive. Or is that one particular part alright. And it sounds like you're saying I really shouldn't worry about static when placed in the bag ? Also yay for having bubble wrap and cardboard!

And thanks I sure hope I enjoy it.

 

[matrix86]

What he means is that there can't be any tears for dust to get through. The drive needs to be completely sealed. If you tore the bad at the top, then when you put the drive in, you need to be sure to close the bag up below where you originally tore it to open it.
Just be sure that there is nothing for dust to get through, whether or not that will be in issue.

Another option is to check your local computer/electronic stores and buy a new anti-static bag if they carry them. If not, there a few places online you can go to buy them.

 

[Iecur]

Oh okay. Sorry I'm being a little paranoid there. Just want to make sure I get this right.

Ah, yeah I tore it at one end so I should just be able to tape it up or something.

Although I think I'll check out that tip you gave me there are a couple of electronic stores around here. I doubt I have enough time to get anything shipped to me by now but here is to hoping a store around here has some.

Thanks for the clarification and the added advice.

 

[matrix86]

No problem. Check out all the electronic stores and all the computer stores (even some mom and pop stores might have them). It'd probably be better to go through the phone book and make calls instead of driving all over town and not finding any.

In case you need clarification, mom and pop stores are those computer stores that aren't associated with any large companies or vendors...individually owned and operated with very few employees. Kind of like a store near where I live. It's actually inside what used to be a large factory, but now is a bunch of individually owned stores (see? some good comes out of all the empty factories up here in Michigan, lol). The computer store has a bunch of bins full of used computer parts, and there are always self-employed repair techs hanging around and just discussing stuff and occasionally getting paid for helping out at the store doing repairs. Parts from these stores are usually pretty cheap. So maybe they might have a few antistatic bags hanging around in the back room somewhere. Just call people and ask if they have any. I don't ever remember Best Buy carrying any, but you might be surprised.