Best way to ship hard drive in USA?

[CGT80]

I have a conventional hard drive that failed and I need to ship it across the US from California to Georgia. I was wondering what the best way to ship it is. It is a 3.5" internal drive. I don't even want to think about it getting possibly lost and I don't want it beat up. I have used the USPS flat rate boxes for items that are not fragile. I used fedex for a small machine, but it wasn't all that fragile, and it only went to Arizona. Is something like 2nd day air better than sending it ground? I would like to get it sent in asap and it might have less time to get lost somewhere if it went by air.

What do your guys' customers use to get a bad drive to you, or what do you use to ship a new drive with recovered data back to the customer?

Thanks,
Chris

[pclab]

If you get the drive wrapped in that plastic with bubbles, very well packed, I think it can go to the end of the world.
I have received drives from the US, UK, etc, on that way and they get here perfectly.

[fzabkar]

FWIW, here are Seagate's Packing and Shipping Instructions:
http://www.seagate.com/support/warranty ... tructions/

- Enclose each drive in an ESD (electrostatic discharge) bag, in an anti-static plastic shell (SeaShell) or anti-static bubble wrap.
- Secure each unit in 2 inch-thick foam rubber in a corrugated box. Do not use popcorn, peanuts, bubble wrap or newspaper. If packaging more than one drive, use a separate container for each drive.

[Cleanroom]

just make sure you do not get this delivery driver.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzhLv0NN5oc

[CGT80]

just make sure you do not get this delivery driver.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzhLv0NN5oc

That is what I was worried about.

I packed the drive in a small box with newspaper to keep it from moving. I put my address return label on the drive and the box. That small box got wrapped in bubble wrap and then it was packed in the big plastic bubbles/balloons that some companies use. I taped the crap out of the second box. I used USPS flat rate shipping. The tech probably got a laugh out of unwrapping that one, but it is better than hearing that they could have recovered my data if it had not been damaged in shipping.

All of my data was recovered. The old drive and new drive were shipped back in packing peanuts, not quite as intricately packed as I had, but at least the recovery company had a copy on their servers for 10 days, just in case something happened. It worked fine when I got it.

I am really glad I found this forum. Thanks for the info guys.