[Leica] Card vs. disc question

[lrzeitlin at gmail.com (Lawrence Zeitlin)]

I've finally accepted the idea that cards are not damaged by even poorly
adjusted third world airport x-ray machines. But how about computer hard
discs? When I travel, I take a hand full of 2 GB cards and a 12" Powerbook.
Every evening, I dump the card contents (at least the good pictures) into
the laptop hard disc, erase the card and am set for the next day. As a
secure backup or in case the laptop self destructs, I also save the card
contents on a very small 160 GB portable disc drive which I keep separately
in my luggage. This belt and suspenders approach has worked well in Europe
and North America, even on trips with many airplane changes. This coming
year I will be traveling to several countries in the Indian subcontinent, SE
Asia, and South America to gather material for a book. What is the
possibility that the disc files, both in the laptop and the backup drive
will be corrupted by passing through badly adjusted x-ray scanners?
Larry Z