Originally Posted by eyecue
The ionizing radiation from a CTX machine is 200X + the amount of x-ray that comes out of machines at checkpoints. I wouldnt bank on only having to fdisk, format and restore.
http://www.invision-tech.com/products/film.htm
The FAA in cooperation with the Photographic and Imaging Manufacturers Association completed a thorough study on film safety in automated EDS. This study confirms CTX and other high dose X-ray systems can, under certain conditions, damage undeveloped film of any speed, whether positive (slides) or negative (prints), color or black and white.
CTX systems, however, will not damage developed or printed films, nor will they affect magnetic media or computers.
(emphasis mine)
You raise an interesting thought about the x-ray does though. High doses of radiation can cause "soft errors" in volatile solid-state storage (e.g. computer RAM) and in non-volatile, non-magnetic, solid-state storage (e.g. flash cards used in mp3 players, digital cameras, many embedded devices). Soft errors corrupt data but don't damage the device. It's a serious concern for orbital and deep-space electronics and a growing concern for general-purpose stuff because the smaller transistors are more susceptible to ambient radiation such as cosmic rays and natural radioactive decay.
I wonder if anyone has done a study on the probability of soft-errors due to high (CTX-level) x-ray doses in today's and projected-future flash card technology. Personally I'd worry about that much more than the magnetic media.