How to ship a hard disk?

[rodhmos]

Hello dear friends.

I have to mail 5 hard disks to a client. I have never done this before and I don't want him to sue me or something, if something bad happens and he loses his recordings and files.

So, please share your wisdom and experience with me:

How to ship the hard disks to him?

What material to use for packaging?

What to be careful for?

Please post some links to online stores, if the moderators are ok with this, of course.

Thank you so much!!!

[octatonic]

Originally Posted by rodhmos

Hello dear friends.
I have to mail 5 hard disks to a client. I have never done this before and I don't want him to sue me or something, if something bad happens and he loses his recordings and files.
So, please share your wisdom and experience with me:
How to ship the hard disks to him?
What material to use for packaging?
What to be careful for?
Please post some links to online stores, if the moderators are ok with this, of course.
Thank you so much!!!

Hiya,

Back them up first
Insure them.
Use a professional courier server, and not the postoffice.
Otherwise use lots of bubblewrap and preferably suspend the HD's individually in foam, then loads of cardboard.

I believe some harddrives have the ability to park the heads- I have never done this, but it might be useful if you are really worried.

JR

[djui5]

I've sent quite a few hard drives back and forth without a hitch (knock on wood).

I usually just make sure they're bubble wrapped well and put into a sturdy box.

I ordered 4 SCSI drives the other day that came in a box with foam inside it. There were cutouts for the 4 (+1 that had a filler in it) drives. The drives were also encased in those plastic cases you get when you buy new un-mounted drives.

Just make sure it's well bubble wrapped, and there's no room for movement and you should be fine. It wouldn't hurt to do the box inside a box thing with hard foam or something similar between them.

[rodhmos]

Thank you!

What about antistatic protection?

[max cooper]

Always double box when shipping small, heavy and valuable items. You literally want to be able to throw the box a few feet without a worry (like it ain't gonna happen!). I think the big bubble wrap is the best, but you gotta use your head.

If you have the budget for it, send it FedEx Express Saver at least, if not faster. And label the box well (with labels, not a sharpie! let's look professional!) I've had the fewest claims with FedEx, and of those, the fewest have been with Express shipments.

For anti-static, use the pink bags. Should be able to get 'em at your local electronics emporium.

[rodhmos]

Thank you for the tips.

Here is my plan:
I have a small flightcase that I used to store mics inside. It is old and scratched and all that, but really stable and strong. Inside I will put some fresh clean foam. I will cut the foam so that I can fit the hard disks. They won't move around, because the foam will keep them in place. Plus, I will put each hard disk inside a pink bag for electronics.

After the client receives the package, he can send me the flightcase back (I will pay the postage).

What do you think of this idea?
Do you think I am taking too many measures?

[JonCraig]

you forgot to mention that you will backup the drives not once, but twice!

--jon

[genericperson]

don't use styrofoam peanuts, because that stuff can breat up in the box and you don't want that dust in your drives.

i would wrap each in a ridiculous amount of bubble wrap. use the big bubbles, not the small stuff. then put a layer of bubble wrap in the bottom of the box and then jam crumpled newspaper into the dead areas once the wrapped drives are in there.

most shippers look for a minimum of 2 inches of padding all around. so if your drives are wrapped like crazy that should help. i've seen everything from soaked bottoms of boxes to a ups guy dropping a box 4 feet right in front of me at a "UPS store" to puncture marks in boxes to entirely ripped edges where you are amazed the contents didn't fly out of the box. one time a fedex guy threw a package with a hard drive in it up onto my balcony to have it get rained on with now plastic covering over the cardboard box.

a box inside a box is a great idea, with generous amounts of bubble wrap and newspaper.

[bernieL0max]

walk into your closest computer shop and ask them if you can please have (purchase?) the box they receive their hard drives in... it will have foam with rectangles cut in it to hold probably 10 or 20 HDDs. It may be designed to hold the HDDs inside clear plastic protective packageing... if so get hold of some of these to. If it is not designed to take the HDDs in these clear plastic things at least put them in static bags!


These boxes are the way the HDD manufacturer send them out of the warehouse to the world... they've put some thought into their design... you realy cant go wrong.

[rodhmos]

Thank you everyone for your tips and ideas and suggestions!!!

[max cooper]

Originally Posted by rodhmos

Thank you for the tips.

Here is my plan:
I have a small flightcase that I used to store mics inside. It is old and scratched and all that, but really stable and strong. Inside I will put some fresh clean foam. I will cut the foam so that I can fit the hard disks. They won't move around, because the foam will keep them in place. Plus, I will put each hard disk inside a pink bag for electronics.

After the client receives the package, he can send me the flightcase back (I will pay the postage).

What do you think of this idea?
Do you think I am taking too many measures?

I find that if that flight case gets thrown (because it's beat up, and because it's heavy duty looking, they'll think it's ok to throw it) it weighs enough to have a much harder impact with the concrete loading dock, which I wouldn't want. I'd still prefer double boxing 'em with lots of bubble wrap.

[7161]

it'd be WAY more sensible to send the data on a series of dvd disks. Smaller, lighter, & virtualy impossible to damage if that's possible of course

[dkatz42]

Originally Posted by richmondjames

I believe some harddrives have the ability to park the heads- I have never done this, but it might be useful if you are really worried.

All modern drives automatically park the heads when they power down. They're remarkably rugged when the heads are parked, considering how miraculous it is that they work at all...