My rule is anything I can't afford to loose I carry with me...

I know, talk about confusing, they must like to keep all us travelers on our toes.

Even if your suitcase is made of cast iron, if it's dropped or thrown around, the impact could still damage your hard drive, surely?

Like others, I have recently been asked to take out my laptop on every flight I've taken.

Unbelievable the crap people believe is necessary for their trips.

Even more unbelieveable is the crap that I've see people trying to re-stuff into their cases at the airport when they're redistributing the weight to get it checked without having to pay the excess baggage charge.

Guilty as charged. I pack crap It's an emotional security thing.Although in my defence, I'm going to be without most of my worldly goods for the best part of three months. Having said that, it's not like I can't get stuff in the US, is it?

There's plenty of crap to be had over here!

I doubt if anyone would argue with that.

Cheap crap at that...

I carry a back up HDD with me in my hand luggage. If you do this frequently you may want to invest in something small like a Western Digital Passport drive. Pretty small and big enough to get a backup of most stuff.

Crappy crap, even...

..that people got up too early today to go rampage for.

Yup, Sally's going to love shopping over here.

Take it with you. The X-Ray's won't harm it and it definitely IS allowed. I carry a spare large laptop batterie and 2 portable hard drives when I travel in the USA every week!

I also have never bothered to take our my toiletries and put in clear plastic container. I have never once been asked to remove it and send it through separately. Either the TSA are dumb asses or it doesn't show up. They are all under 4oz's though.

You're lucky, I always do the clear plastic bag thing every trip. Since my wife was stopped and had to empty her whole carry on just for a 1/2 oz sample tube of perfume that she had in a zip pocket of her soap bag without realising, I know that it shows up. It was embarrassing for her, may you never suffer the same thing.

Glad I stayed in bed, the rampage wasn't on my list of things to do.
How about that craziness in NJ where the store employee was crushed in the rush to get into Walmart?

And don't tell me... you'll be with her every step of the way.