Reply #10: if your laptop will not boot at the security checkpoint,

[Lance_Boyle]

it will be confiscated. For this reason, removing the HD is a decidedly bad idea. Better idea would be to remove all data you wish to keep secret - upload it to online storage, or carry it on a flash drive in checked baggage. Encryption is another option, but if they keep the damned thing for 2 weeks rifling through open-access contents, who knows how long they'd keep it with something "suspicious" like inaccessible data.