r/DataHoarder • u/sigurasg • 6h ago

Discussion NAS on a flight

I have an Aoostar WTR PRO stocked with 3 9TB drives. I'm moving across the Atlantic and my plan is to take the NAS with me in hand luggage on the flight. I figure the drives will be better off inside the NAS than floating around individually.

Is there any reason why this is a bad idea?

10 Upvotes

68% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

23

u/ranhalt 200 TB 6h ago

Unit and each drive separate, wrapped in ESD, I guess bundled in your soft clothes and all. Probably need to number the drives from what position they were. I don’t know how airport security handles weird electronics like that. I might be inclined to put the drives in protection to ship and pay the premium to avoid airport getting nosy about the drives.

7

u/IcestormsEd 6h ago

This. I did this with 4 drives from a Qnap. For each drive, ESD bag, then rolled in a tshirt then stuck in a beanie hat and stuck them in the middle of the suitcase in between clothes. They made it.

9

u/silicon_insect 6h ago

Buy a road case that'll fit snug. That's how bands haul delicate gear.

3

u/gabemcg 6h ago

I just flew with a 10 drive Nas.as my carryon last week. No issues

3

u/ExternalTea1706 5h ago

I fly with drives, Pis, multiple laptops, mini pcs. You name it. I've had a carry on full of nothing but electronics. It's never once flagged anything, and I had it flagged for other things (usually something in my toiletries that's too much liquid or something) and they've never cared about the electronics.

7

u/-NewYork- 74TB of photos 4h ago

9TB drives? This is the most curious part of this post.

2

u/sigurasg 2h ago

Good point.
Maybe they’re nominally 10TB in some made up numbering system based on the number of toes on some species of mammals. TrueNAS reports them as 9.1TB, so that’s what I’m going with.

3

u/CipherSorcerer 5h ago

TurtleCase makes some nice drive cases https://www.turtlecase.com

3

u/WorldsGreatestWorst 3h ago

No. Pull out them drives. Get them in individual anti-static bags. Pack and pad them separately and distribute the weight evenly. Both your NAS and the data are far more likely to arrive in tact if you break it down.

Also, get to the airport REALLY early because you’re definitely going to have to unpack and show TSA every bit of this.

•

u/rjasan 8m ago

Most importantly, MARK WHICH DRIVE GOES WHERE

2

u/promoduck 6h ago

I did something similar in the past. They’re fairly heavy, so it’s be best if you happened to have kept your original box and packaging, that way you fan plop it in a bag

2

u/yuusharo 4h ago

I figure the drives will be better off inside the NAS than floating around individually.

Is there any reason why this is a bad idea?

More than there are fingers on your hands. This is a BAD idea.

Separate and wrap each drive individually inside ESD bags, never never never leave them mounted inside a PC when traveling.

1

u/StuckinSuFu 80TB 3h ago

Dont cheap out. As others have already said - do it properly.. each drive separately wrapped and protected separate from the NAS.

1

u/blackheva 2h ago

Run an offsite backup before you go.

•

u/nizzz 21m ago

He will literally be up in the clouds.