Cheap Laptop Protection
- Thread starter Jagermeister
- Start date
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I wrap mine in my dirty underwear and then put it in my luggage. 2-fold protection. Prevents damage from shock and reduces the risk of theft.
dcarver
Well-known member
Checkswrecks
Well-known member
[SIZE=14pt]GAWK - CHOKE - GASP !!![/SIZE]
TOO MUCH INFORMATION !!!
[SIZE=12pt]Puhleease don't tell us how you fluff up the underwear !!![/SIZE]
Colonel Panic
Well-known member
jwilly
Administrator of Drama
Jager, The one you linked looks very similar to some that I own for laptops in my company. The are pretty nice and do offer some protection but are also very compact.
JW
JW
HaulinAshe
Well-known member
I've used one of those a few times. Biggest problem I had was that you have to be careful about what you are setting the laptop on. It helps if you stuff your dirty underwear underneath it, or at least stow your jacket liner and gloves underneath. Anything sharp or protruding will create a stress line and possible hole in the case.
Here's another suggestion. buy one of the regular Targus cases, but cut the feet off the bottom. That offers a good compromise between rigidity, protection and size.
Targus Traditional Notebook Case
Here's another suggestion. buy one of the regular Targus cases, but cut the feet off the bottom. That offers a good compromise between rigidity, protection and size.
Targus Traditional Notebook Case
Khunajawdge
Toto El Mundo!
happyPuppy
Well-known member
Does any one know if there is any real difference with hard drives and shock resistance since it is the most sensitive part of a notebook? For instance Dell offers "Strike Zone" HD's Dell Strike Zone Technology that they claim is much better than a regular HD. Is this true or marketing BS? I thought all HD's just park the heads? Worth getting it?
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TheAxeman
Well-known member
Jager, I use one of those and it seems to work pretty good. Bestbuy has them on the shelf marketed under a different name as I recall.
Wolfhound
Wildman
The price is right ! I just ordered one - been looking for a cheap priced cover. $7.50 with shipping !
chrisflock
FJR nose gunner
Any recent laptop hard drive will park the heads, some have a 'free fall' sensor to park the heads when they sense a drop.
The magnetic hard drive is really the downfall of laptops, but at this point I would have a hard time recommending a SSD (flash based) drive for a couple reasons:
1) Most SSDs available don't have enough capacity
2) Price: especially considering the small size, the drives just cost too much more than a magnetic drive
3) Actual failure rate doesn't justify it.
Of the last 10 'dead' laptops that I've worked on, I've had 1 with a hard drive that was actually dead, and it wasn't from a drop or anything, the person was actually using this laptop on a desk, it hadn't moved in years. The laptop was 6 years old or so, I think the drive just plain wore out.
I've had 4 with screens that died (2 of them the backlight quit, 1 the backlight works but the controller chip for the LCD must be toast, doesn't appear to have backlight or display) 1 with an intermittent backlight out (seems to be a loose connection to the motherboard on the power to backlight) and 2 with shattered screens. Other two had motherboard failures, one of those definitely attributed to water exposure.
All in all, the laptop will generally take a decent level of shock/vibration when it isn't on, if you need something that will take shock and vibration while on, get a flash based drive.
Chris
PhilMills
Well-known member
"Strike Zone" has nothing at all to do with the hard drive itself - based on the Dell I've got sitting right in front of me, it appears to be corporate-speak for "little pad of rubber over the hard drive location".
As another commenter pointed out, all hard drives will park the read-write heads safely off of the disk when power is removed (either during a controlled system shutdown or an accidental power loss). I worked for Maxtor and Seagate, so I'm pretty confident that this is the case.
Once the heads are off of the disk, then the drive is pretty damage-proof - it takes a LOT of effort to un-park them. Most of the damage you want to worry about is plain old vibration shaking the rest of the laptop loose - there's a lot of connectors (and screen hinges are typically very poorly designed).
DO look for a drive or laptop that has a free-fall sensor built in - that'll help prevent damage from somebody dragging the laptop off of your desk when they trip over your power/network cable. It only matters if the laptop's running, though, so it's not an absolutely critical feature for motorcycle use.
I have a little Asus EeePC 7" netbook for my travels. It's got 8GB of solid-state memory and can take a 16GB SDHC card or any USB thumb drive you care to shove at it for additional storage. As far as I'm concerned, it's pretty much indestructible from a vibration/shock standpoint. I've had it for a year and haven't had a chance to give the minimal storage space a second thought. Between USB drives and hotel Internet, I've not had any real need for massive on-board storage.
A laptop bag has become the "man purse" of the 21st century. I mean, how could you get by without all the other gee-gaw that you carry around in your laptop bag?
I have at least 8 different cables (serial, network, phone, USB, etc ) plus a power adaptor, wireless mouse, stack of CDs, often a digital camera ... you see my point? There's no way I could get by with a bag that small. I actually still have a laptop bag identical to the one referenced by Jeff A. (sorry Jeff).
I have at least 8 different cables (serial, network, phone, USB, etc ) plus a power adaptor, wireless mouse, stack of CDs, often a digital camera ... you see my point? There's no way I could get by with a bag that small. I actually still have a laptop bag identical to the one referenced by Jeff A. (sorry Jeff).
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bmwhd
Well-known member
I use a laptop sleeve by "BUILT"
It fits my enormous 17" Dell and sits just right in the saddlebag of the FJR.
It fits my enormous 17" Dell and sits just right in the saddlebag of the FJR.
HaulinAshe
Well-known member
My "man purse" is essentially my office. I have seven different physical locations to monitor spread among five counties. Most of the internal pockets I don't use. But I must have room for the AC adapter, broadband card, and the stack of reports someone just handed me at the last meeting I attended.
So there FredW, I'm with you dude. I have a man purse in my top bag.
Jagermeister
Well-known member
I use a laptop sleeve by "BUILT"
It fits my enormous 17" Dell and sits just right in the saddlebag of the FJR.
That could be just what I'm looking for.
Essentially, I want to leave the topbox behind, when travelling solo. My current laptop fits into a saddlebag, but the case won't.
All the other crap (chargers, paperwork, bodies) can fit in the other saddlebag.
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nofreeride
Well-known member
bmwhd,
I am researching this same issue. My Dell D820 has a 15.4" screen and barely fits in the left saddlebag of my '04. I want to be sure the extra dimensions of the sleeve still allows it to fit. How do you fit a 17" screen?
bmwhd
Well-known member
My bad. Mines a 15.4" screen too.
The sleeve adds almost no extra volume.
There's one angle at which it will fit. I use the straps that are in the saddle bags to hold it at that exact angle while I close the lid. About 1/5th of the laptop ends up in the lid space that way but it's suspended by the straps.
