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Laptop/Hard Drive: Carrying In Pannier Bag?
Does anybody have experience carrying a laptop computer with hard drive
in a rear-luggage-rack-mounted pannier bag? My kneejerk reaction is that it needs tb carried in a messenger bag or back pack to isolate it from road shock. OTOH, it seems like there's some give when something's in a fabric pannier bag. Does anybody have a history of carrying a laptop in a pannier bag without damage? -- Pete Cresswell |
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#2
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Laptop/Hard Drive: Carrying In Pannier Bag?
(PeteCresswell) wrote:
Does anybody have experience carrying a laptop computer with hard drive in a rear-luggage-rack-mounted pannier bag? My kneejerk reaction is that it needs tb carried in a messenger bag or back pack to isolate it from road shock. OTOH, it seems like there's some give when something's in a fabric pannier bag. Does anybody have a history of carrying a laptop in a pannier bag without damage? I carry my laptop in an Ortleib office panier bag. I do put the laptop in a sleeve, and the sleeve in the bag. I've never had a problem with damage to the laptop. I suspect that the "floor" of the bag is not rigid helps absorb shocks to some extent. -RL -- Rob Lindauer - for my real email address, please replace "att" with "sbc" |
#3
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Laptop/Hard Drive: Carrying In Pannier Bag?
On Sun, 24 Mar 2013 12:00:01 -0400, "(PeteCresswell)"
wrote: Does anybody have experience carrying a laptop computer with hard drive in a rear-luggage-rack-mounted pannier bag? Not me, but some of my student customers have tried that. The newer drives seem to last. Old machines (i.e 6 years) seem to be problematic. The most common shock failure is not the hard disk drive. It's soldering failure under the BGA chips, which is difficult or impossible to fix. My kneejerk reaction is that it needs tb carried in a messenger bag or back pack to isolate it from road shock. I recommend a common laptop bag lined with extra foam rubber. Just about anything better than a towel wrap will help. I idea is to prevent impact with the metal pannier frame or anything solid in the pannier bags. OTOH, it seems like there's some give when something's in a fabric pannier bag. I would agree if the laptop doesn't make contact with the frame or contents, but that not what's usually inside the bags. If you can wrap it with a padded jacket, it might work. Does anybody have a history of carrying a laptop in a pannier bag without damage? Not me, as I mumbled, some of the local UCSC student do it on a regular basis. I only see the broken laptops, so I don't have much history for the successes. I can't say that any of the one's I've seen were carried inside panniers. More likely a backpack. Incidentally, the backpack is a problem because the bottom is not padded. I see more cracked cases than crashed hard drives from dropped backpacks. Add some foam padding on the bottom of the backpack. Think about an SSD (solid state drive). They're getting more affordable and the speed boost is wonderful. Otherwise, make regular image backups of your hard disk drive, so that recovery is painless. http://kimoechan.wordpress.com/2011/09/21/hard-disk-drive%E2%80%99s-weakness-%E2%80%93-shock-robustness-introduction/ -- Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558 |
#4
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Laptop/Hard Drive: Carrying In Pannier Bag?
On Mar 24, 10:59 am, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Sun, 24 Mar 2013 12:00:01 -0400, "(PeteCresswell)" wrote: Does anybody have experience carrying a laptop computer with hard drive in a rear-luggage-rack-mounted pannier bag? Not me, but some of my student customers have tried that. The newer drives seem to last. Old machines (i.e 6 years) seem to be problematic. The most common shock failure is not the hard disk drive. It's soldering failure under the BGA chips, which is difficult or impossible to fix. That's what I was going to say (had it typed even but didn't send): If the hard drive is not running (heads parked), it's probably no more concern than many other laptop pieces prone to breaking. My kneejerk reaction is that it needs tb carried in a messenger bag or back pack to isolate it from road shock. I recommend a common laptop bag lined with extra foam rubber. Just about anything better than a towel wrap will help. I idea is to prevent impact with the metal pannier frame or anything solid in the pannier bags. Yep - isolation - like Joy's ripe tomato solution, except appropriately damped for the load. OTOH, it seems like there's some give when something's in a fabric pannier bag. I would agree if the laptop doesn't make contact with the frame or contents, but that not what's usually inside the bags. If you can wrap it with a padded jacket, it might work. Does anybody have a history of carrying a laptop in a pannier bag without damage? Not me, as I mumbled, some of the local UCSC student do it on a regular basis. I only see the broken laptops, so I don't have much history for the successes. I can't say that any of the one's I've seen were carried inside panniers. More likely a backpack. Incidentally, the backpack is a problem because the bottom is not padded. I see more cracked cases than crashed hard drives from dropped backpacks. Add some foam padding on the bottom of the backpack. I got a backpack with my ThinkPad that was specially designed to carry a laptop, with padded compartment. The only time I have carried a laptop on my bike was short trips (a few miles) across town. I have a heavy (large, thick-skinned) leather bag that I just hang off one side of the front Surly Nice Rack, with the shoulder strap across the top platform and hooked on the far side at rear. It rides fine that way, though I take it easy - more becuase of the handling effects of load hanging off one side up front. The bag is large (spacious) as noted, and the inner laptop compartment is not especially padded, but holds the laptop securely buffered in isolation from the outer compartments. The heavy leather also takes a beating without transmitting froces directly. Think about an SSD (solid state drive). They're getting more affordable and the speed boost is wonderful. Otherwise, make regular image backups of your hard disk drive, so that recovery is painless. http://kimoechan.wordpress.com/2011/09/21/hard-disk-drive%E2%80%99s-w... |
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Laptop/Hard Drive: Carrying In Pannier Bag?
On 3/24/2013 12:59 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
Not me, as I mumbled, some of the local UCSC student do it on a regular basis. I only see the broken laptops, so I don't have much history for the successes. I can't say that any of the one's I've seen were carried inside panniers. More likely a backpack. Incidentally, the backpack is a problem because the bottom is not padded. I see more cracked cases than crashed hard drives from dropped backpacks. Add some foam padding on the bottom of the backpack. I used a backpack with an external pocket below the main pocket, and stuffed in a rain jacket and rain pants, so there was something squishy at the bottom. -- T0m $herm@n |
#6
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Laptop/Hard Drive: Carrying In Pannier Bag?
NOBRAINER
backpack. check Kelty at Campmor.com and Pelican. butbutbut in an accident where you would fly, the bike stops. a rack, see my ply rack photos with perimeter guards and a foolproof fasening sysem wins. with a pack, look for adding a waist belt eliminating sway to a side when in extremis. rarely do we fall on our backs. I have a Dell 9400/1705E. A pelican was looked for but that time was not available for a big screen so the 1705 went into the Kelty in bubblkepack. |
#7
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Laptop/Hard Drive: Carrying In Pannier Bag?
On Sunday, March 24, 2013 7:04:33 PM UTC-4, datakoll wrote:
NOBRAINER backpack. check Kelty at Campmor.com and Pelican. butbutbut in an accident where you would fly, the bike stops. a rack, see my ply rack photos with perimeter guards and a foolproof fasening sysem wins. with a pack, look for adding a waist belt eliminating sway to a side when in extremis. rarely do we fall on our backs. I have a Dell 9400/1705E. A pelican was looked for but that time was not available for a big screen so the 1705 went into the Kelty in bubblkepack. ........ rain in from the Gulf. Rain equals Pelican |
#8
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Laptop/Hard Drive: Carrying In Pannier Bag?
On Sunday, March 24, 2013 7:10:37 PM UTC-4, datakoll wrote:
On Sunday, March 24, 2013 7:04:33 PM UTC-4, datakoll wrote: NOBRAINER backpack. check Kelty at Campmor.com and Pelican. butbutbut in an accident where you would fly, the bike stops. a rack, see my ply rack photos with perimeter guards and a foolproof fasening sysem wins. with a pack, look for adding a waist belt eliminating sway to a side when in extremis. rarely do we fall on our backs. I have a Dell 9400/1705E. A pelican was looked for but that time was not available for a big screen so the 1705 went into the Kelty in bubblkepack.. ....... rain in from the Gulf. Rain equals Pelican ..... urack runneth over http://www.campmor.com/outdoor/gear/...%252834%252 9 |
#9
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Laptop/Hard Drive: Carrying In Pannier Bag?
On Mar 24, 7:30 pm, Phil W Lee wrote:
"(PeteCresswell)" considered Sun, 24 Mar 2013 12:00:01 -0400 the perfect time to write: Does anybody have experience carrying a laptop computer with hard drive in a rear-luggage-rack-mounted pannier bag? My kneejerk reaction is that it needs tb carried in a messenger bag or back pack to isolate it from road shock. OTOH, it seems like there's some give when something's in a fabric pannier bag. Does anybody have a history of carrying a laptop in a pannier bag without damage? You're most unlikely to damage the hard drive of a laptop by carrying it on a bicycle. The bits around the hard drive will break long before the HDD. I'd be worrying about screen, keyboard, hinge, and the corners of the casing well ahead of any damage to the drive. They really aren't that delicate when they aren't actually spinning. Even a desktop or server HDD will stand up fine to pretty severe shocks as long as it's switched off (you should see what couriers do to disk drives in transit). Just make sure it is properly padded, and it'll be fine though. Another approach / measure that didn't spring immediately to mind: http://www.panasonic.com/business/toughbook/ .... though I can tell you from experience maintaining a fleet of them that they're not indestructible. |
#10
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Laptop/Hard Drive: Carrying In Pannier Bag?
On 24 Mar, 16:00, "(PeteCresswell)" wrote:
Does anybody have experience carrying a laptop computer with hard drive in a rear-luggage-rack-mounted pannier bag? My kneejerk reaction is that it needs tb carried in a messenger bag or back pack to isolate it from road shock. You also want to minimise the range of thermal cycling and so carrying on one's back will possibly be better in winter. Some sort of low thermally-conductive bulk for temperature stability along with dense edge padding to give vibrational "isolation" should cover most of the problem. OTOH, it seems like there's some give when something's in a fabric pannier bag. Does anybody have a history of carrying a laptop in a pannier bag without damage? or is it possible for any reasonable period of time? If it's tolerable I believe that a suitably padded backpack is, for the most, preferable. -- Pete Cresswell |
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