romeo@lindy.Stanford.EDU (Patrick Goebel) (11/18/89)
Some of you out there have had the occasion to send your SE with hard disk through the airport X-ray machine without loss of data. I have two related questions: (1) Is it generally true FROM EXPERIENCE that magnetic storage media (tapes, floppy disks, hard disks) are immune to damage from airport X-ray machines and/or metal detectors? (2) Is it true IN THEORY that magnetic storage media are safe from these devices? I have always insisted that airport personnel NOT pass my floppy disks through the X-ray machine. However, if this is just superstitious behaviour, why bother creating a fuss? ------------------ Seeking the Truth, patrick--romeo@lindy.Stanford.EDU
wilkins@jarthur.Claremont.EDU (Mark Wilkins) (11/18/89)
In article <5850@lindy.Stanford.EDU> romeo@lindy.UUCP (Patrick Goebel) writes: > >(2) Is it true IN THEORY that magnetic storage media are safe from >these devices? A while ago I made the comment in this newsgroup that I thought that disk drives were safe from soft X-rays because of their RF shielding, which is required by the FCC. And yes, I do know that X-rays and radio are not the same... :-) However, you ask about floppies and tapes. Magnetic media which are passed through an x-ray machine are definitely at risk. The reason I made the comment about hard disks is that they are shielded quite well. Unshielded magnetic media definitely should not be passed through the x-ray detector. Although I haven't heard of any problems, the chances for difficulty are at least 100 times greater than with fixed disks. -- Mark Wilkins wilkins@jarthur.claremont.edu