Almost ten years ago, traveling with a laptop across international lines was much easier than now. With a number hardware compatibility issues resolved, there are new challenges that has to be considered such as protecting your files and even just crossing international borders.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that custom officials will take you aside every time to check the contents of your SSD or hard drive. However, this could happen from time to time and for this reason, you should be prepared.

Encrypting your files is not the way to go as this might arouse suspicion among officials. Instead, copy your sensitive files to media that you keep at home or even in its encrypted form into the cloud. After this, you can wipe them off your internal hard disk completely.

Of course, apart from this, the files that you will need during your travel should be backed up in the cloud just in case you lose your laptop or something goes wrong.

Another thing to keep in mind is that if you wish to stay for a long time in another country, you might have to pay duty tax to use your laptop when you are there.

There are a couple of ways by which you can determine the fees involved: one, search for ‘duty tax’ and the name of the country or even try the Duty Calculator which is free to use for the first time.

One last thing: different countries have different electric outlets and voltages. For this, you should purchase an international plug adapter for as much as $10. There are universal adapters for as much as $30 and even have a USB port.

Having said that, most laptops can handle voltages varying 100 to 220, and so that shouldn’t be that much of a problem to deal with.