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How to Travel with a Laptop and Keep It Working

Having a laptop while traveling can be such a great asset – you can connect with your friends, upload pictures, save money by booking flights and hostels online etc.

Travel With A Laptop
Travel With A Laptop

But when traveling around the world, by nature you are forced to put your laptop through so many challenges that it can be really hard to keep it in a good working condition, especially if you don’t know the best ways to look after it.

On my first big trip, I took a small laptop which broke down halfway through and I was forced to purchase a new one – I had no idea how much pressure I put on my little 8 inch laptop, and that cost me a big portion of my travel budget.

Here are some lessons I learned:

  • Use a good protective laptop case: This is probably the most important issue when traveling. You move around a lot, and it will get bumped into things no matter how hard you try to avoid it. If you have it in a big backpack/suitcase it can get hit when someone throws your luggage in the bag storage on the bus, or handles it badly.
  • Never leave your laptop in a cold environment: If you do, and then bring it into a warm environment, condensation on the circuitry will build up and cause the laptop to short itself out.
  • Never keep your paperwork between the screen and keypad: Paper is pretty sharp and will eventually cut into the screen or scratch it.
  • Use good virus software: When traveling you never know how safe the internet connection you’re using is, so always make sure to keep your laptop safe with a good firewall. And make sure you update it and clean your data every few weeks.
  • Avoid placing your laptop on soft surfaces: This will block the air vents and overheat your system. Doing this too often isn’t good for the laptop.
  • Don’t pick the laptop up by the screen: I did this way too many times, and eventually the screen cracked…

I followed none of this advice, and as you can imagine every single consequence mentioned – happened…

One Last Tip:

How to Travel with a Laptop and Keep It Working
How to Travel with a Laptop and Keep It Working

Even if you follow these rules there is still a risk that your computer will break. If this happens, you can lose everything on it.

Make sure that you have saved your photos (and other important documents) somewhere else too, like on a USB memory or an external hard drive.

If you have an iPod with a lot of memory which you don’t use, you can even save them there.

Since both laptops and hard drives run high risks of breaking, I recommend you to store your photos online as well. This way you have at least three places for your photos. I’ve learned this from past experiences.

Our hard drive was full, and we hadn’t uploaded our photos from parts of our trip online. Of course the laptop broke and the photos were gone. Learn about studying a language while traveling and tips for e-learning success.

How to plan a round-the-world trip?

(photo credits: stuartpilbrow – ed yourdon)

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. These are good tips! I’ve been fretting over the best way to protect my mbp. I’m going with a speck case that’s always on as well as a neoprene sleeve for cushioning and outdoor research waterproof bag to protect it when it’s in my pack. Might be overkill, but it’s a small price to pay to make this thing last.

  4. Avoid placing your laptop on soft surfaces” only matters for notebooks which have side/bottom vents.

  6. Good tip about storing photos online as well as on hard drive. Too many people have learned the hard way that laptops, memory cards and external hard drives can all be lost (sometimes all at once!).

  7. Don’t walk down small stone steps in nothing but your socks carrying your Mac casually in one hand.

    If you do, then don’t slip.

    If you do slip, then don’t throw the aforementioned Mac down those same stone steps, watching as it bounces a few times, slides across the floor and hits a wall.

  8. The most important tip must be to remember to take your charger. I left mine at home after a trip to Egypt.

  9. Awesome tips–I didn’t know that condensation could build up in the circuitry! Kind of scary. I would be so upset if my computer broke while traveling. I have thought about getting a little netbook for travel since it’s so small and seems easy to protect, but it sounds like regardless of the size, there are still potential problems!

  10. yknow how you said to save stuff in an external HD / thumbdrive / etc?
    you can also save smaller files by emailing them to yourselves 🙂

  16. These are great tips. I’d add: do not store the cable in the laptop case but separately, and wrapped up (the plug can add pressure to the screen).

  17. Great tips! I always put my laptop on my belly (soft surface) when working in bed. Oops! I would also recommend purchasing travel insurance that covers the laptop if it’s lost or stolen and a warranty to cover repairs.

  18. Yeah, travel insurance that covers the lap top can be very good to have if it’s an expensive one – although I didn’t bother getting one for my cheap one as it would turn out to cost more than the lap top itself..!

  19. Do not fall asleep with your laptop in your lap, sitting in an airport chair – or you will wake up when the laptop hits the floor!

  20. Don’t let other people borrow your laptop!!! People will not treat your stuff as respectfully as you do!!! As I write this, I realize I do this all the time!

  21. Thanks for the tips! I think a lot of us put our computers through hell while we are traveling. That’s part of the reason I’m considering just getting a cheap laptop to travel with. But I would miss my Mac sooo much!

  22. This is really good common sense advice….sometimes we tend to take our laptops for granted and often do not protect them as much as we should….this should be a wakeup call for those who are a bit careless when it comes to things like this. It’s like the old saying “You never miss your water until your well runs dry”.

  24. My biggest learning experience was getting a sleeve that was waterproof. The first time I got caught in the rain I panicked but my netbook was dry.

  25. I took my laptop with me on a 9-month bike tour through Europe last year and my hard drive crashed in the first month. Luckily, I had backed everything up on an external hard drive. If I hadn’t done that, I’d still be crying. I was able to get the computer back up and running (it now has a German operating system). But now I back up everything on my computer using the automated service at Carbonite.com. I also backup everything to an external hard drive on a regular basis (every two weeks).

  26. Amazing idea for a post. After my laptop was stolen from my home in Costa Rica, I carried my next one around with me everywhere I went. Everywhere. The beach, on hikes, etc. I learned some of the tips you wrote about here the wrong way — my brand-new laptop aged very quickly. I hope readers prevent making the same mistakes by reading your post!

  27. I don’t think that’s overkill, better safe than sorry 😉 And like you say, it’s a small price to pay in the end.

  32. I think bringing a cheap laptop when traveling is the best idea, unless you really need a Mac. I traveled for years with cheap mini laptops, but now that I need a better laptop for work purposes, I bring a Mac.

    If you travel with a cheaper lap top you wouldn’t have to worry as much of having it stolen or broken, since it didn’t cost that much to begin with you won’t have lost too much money.. 🙂

  34. How I wish my friend has read this article before our Taiwan trip last October. For some reason her laptop broke and since we were there for a three day event, she lost the all the pictures from the first night. She did not have it saved on a backup file.

  35. How To Travel With A Laptop, And Keep It Working…Great information here! Very helpful! Thanks for sharing!