How did you move your computer?

[rebeccajo 14]

Wes tore the entire thing down and brought all the bits including mouse and UK keyboard in his hand luggage. The bag passed through the airport scanners just like any other piece of hand luggage and was searched twice at two different airports. Everything worked great when he re-built it into a new case over here with no loss of data.

[Donal78 0]

When we moved over i just brought my laptop in a laptop bag. No problmes apart from when i had to take it out and put seperately through the security scanners.

[dark faery 0]

My husband tore his apart and put all the pieces into his checked luggage- in those antistatic bag things (sorry for lack of technical terms, I'm not a big computer person ). Except the hard drives, he brought all four of those in his carry on, mixed between my backpack and his. He left the case/power supply in AU though and got a new one here in America, because his would not switch voltage.

We were a little worried about packing up the computer in checked luggage, but our travel insurance informed us that if anything was stolen or lost, it'd be covered up to $600 per item, I believe.. so check with your travel insurance on what they will cover.

[brtlmj 0]

As have I since I owned a computer store before I got into the I.T. contract thing. Believe me....they're out there. About half of the new HPs don't have the switch, nor will the HP US power supplies "adjust" for 230V. It would fry immediately. I carry PowMax power supplies (among others) and only about half of those come with switches. I honestly don't know why manufacturers wouldn't make their power supplies dual voltage....it would let them carry only one SKU for each model. Seems like it would save money....

It does save a few bucks per PC - you can use slightly cheaper components. Just wondering... have you ever seen a 230V-only power supply ?

My husband tore his apart and put all the pieces into his checked luggage- in those antistatic bag things (sorry for lack of technical terms, I'm not a big computer person ). Except the hard drives, he brought all four of those in his carry on,

Errr... I would not worry about the drives being stolen. I WOULD worry about them being thrown around, though. My advice is, if you take a hard drive with you, pack it securely and put it in your hand baggage.

Bartek

[dark faery 0]

Unfortunately, the harsh reality is people do get items stolen/missing out of their checked baggage often. I agree, do take the harddrives in your carry on. It'll be far less likely that it'll end up damaged if you do that- that's what we did. Or lost (remember, harddrives accumulate mass amounts of personal info- now a days you have to be careful who has access to such information about you). But he was worried about someone swiping the rest of his bits & pieces that we put in his checked luggage. Remeber, we disassembled his entire computer and stuck it in there (minus the hard drives). Some of it wasn't cheap or inexpensive and who knows why people steal the things they do. We didn't want to take chances- that's all, just offering advice to people here who, like my husband, didn't really want to ship his computer using using a cargo line.

[Neja 0]

I married a computer geek so he built me a computer from scratch when I got here. Very handy. Nothing on my old computer that I couldn't live without.

[Jan 0]

I thought about bringing the hard drives, but instead I copied the most important files on CD's and just brought those.

I left the working computer to my sister, and I can log on to it over the internet if and when I need something I left behind. My USC wife already had a computer that gets me by until I can build one to my liking. My old one was getting outdated anyway so no point in bringing it with me.

Jan

[Dina 0]

Thank you all very much for your replies! His pc is pretty newish, I know he wants to bring most of the components over here. I will make him come read this thread.

[Saddle Bronc 124]

As a new TN-1 holder (in 1994), I moved a PC from Calgary to Atlanta.

Basically, I took apart the cables and placed the components in their packaging, and put ALL the boxes into a large U-haul box, then checked THAT in at the PFI.

[Kajikit 65]

I was going to remove the hard drive and bring that with me, but I decided against it - I had enough junk to bring! I burned all my essential personal files (photos etc) onto DVD-roms and brought them, and my husband built me a new computer - in fact, he built it for me before I was even there, although I didn't get a monitor till later...

[Leafgal 3]

I decided that when I go I am not taking my PC I will leave it behind for my mother so we can communicate. I just figure it is going to be more hassle than it is worth to get it accross the border. I will burn my files and pics to CD and reformat it for mom. My SO has an older one and we will get a new one for me as I will also be doing some billing work for him and he will need it be a better one, so likely Dell will be hearing from me as he gets a deal on them at work.

[girl 37 7]

hmm... I carried the tower in a box as my carry-on luggage. I was too poor to buy a laptop and needed everything that was on it to graduate. I had to pack at the last minute, so my brother helped me secure it in a box that was slightly too big. He grabbed a bunch of socks and other stray things from my dirty laundry... not pleasant when I had to take it out at security. They took one look at me at the gate and told me to pre-board.

[Dina 0]

As a new TN-1 holder (in 1994), I moved a PC from Calgary to Atlanta.

Basically, I took apart the cables and placed the components in their packaging, and put ALL the boxes into a large U-haul box, then checked THAT in at the PFI.

Sadly, he can't drive a U-haul from Germany.

hmm... I carried the tower in a box as my carry-on luggage. I was too poor to buy a laptop and needed everything that was on it to graduate. I had to pack at the last minute, so my brother helped me secure it in a box that was slightly too big. He grabbed a bunch of socks and other stray things from my dirty laundry... not pleasant when I had to take it out at security. They took one look at me at the gate and told me to pre-board.

LOL ok... will make sure that he uses his clean unmentionables if he packs up the whole tower.. lol

[govols 0]

I wish they all HAD that little switch. I work for HP, and only half of the computers we build have the switch. Of course, the computers always seem to come down the line with the switch either on 230V or in the middle somewhere, so I spend a lot of time moving switches to 115V. lol

I have no reason not to believe you, but I have never seen a PC that does not have this switch OR does not automatically adjust to either 110V or 220V. And I have seen quite a few...

Bartek

You've obviously not seen that many because it is quite common these days for them not to have switches on

Tony

[brtlmj 0]

I have no reason not to believe you, but I have never seen a PC that does not have this switch OR does not automatically adjust to either 110V or 220V. And I have seen quite a few...

You've obviously not seen that many because it is quite common these days for them not to have switches on

Chances are that I've seen WAY more than you Most of them in Europe, though.

Bartek