I've actually done this, albeit with less stuff overall, multiple times.

Here's my experience and for the OP and regarding your points, that I think are very valid.

1. I had all my data on mirrored RAID and so I just had half my drives in the checked baggage and took the other half into my carry-on. FWIW, if you have 2TB, that's not a lot. I don't know how old your drives are but at current hard drive size I bet you only have one 2TB drive there if you're not already running a RAID, else two. I had four drives total. Someone might ask if you travel with 20 drives ;) Since "a truckload of tapes" has a much higher bandwidth than any internet connection, even today, I bet there's a lot more travel with "hardware" than one might think. Like you say, this applies to lawful travel.

2. Nobody cared. I wasn't asked about my carry-on at all. We had multiple laptops and a few hard drives, CDs, USB keys, CPU, RAM. I never got a "citation" about the checked baggage either. I would say that unfortunately here we do have to mention "racial profiling" i.e. YMMV depending on where exactly you travel and whether you're a visible minority in any of the checkpoints you go through.

3. I guess it depends on the exact make up and volume. Do you have 10 SD cards? Nobody cares, people have lots of devices that use these suckers. DSLR Camera? It's normal to have at least like 4 SD cards just for that. FWIW, a few times I had the CPU and RAM in my laptop bag but decided I'd buy a new case and motherboard at the new location for example.

4. This! Even the time when we shipped everything, because the container would take "forever" vs. us flying, CPU, RAM and hard drives still went with us, sold the motherboard and bought a new one on arrival and ran it all "open air" until the server case arrived a few weeks later by shipping container. Nobody blinked an eye anywhere.

5. I think this can't be overstated. Be nice. Be courteous. Be honest. For the above tech stuff we were never asked. I bet they see this all the time in their scanner. But we have been pulled aside to open one of our carry-ons because they couldn't figure out what was in there via the x-ray scanner. So we had to explain to them why it was full of old match box cars, playmobil and Lego!

Anecdote: I have been asked to boot a laptop I was carrying once. That was when we were visiting the parliament in Ottawa. I don't remember why I had the laptop with me, probably because I didn't want to leave it in a cheap motel lol! I never thought about it, until they told me to boot it up and I got really concerned, because it had no Windows on it, just Linux and I didn't have graphical boot (i.e. no nice logo or anything) and it booted straight to command line login. No issues. You might have a different experience visiting the US capitol ;)

Re: booting laptop: my understanding here is that they usually just want to see that it is a physically functional device, and don't really care what it's running.

5 easy tricks to get Linux running on your bomb

SECURITY FORCES HATE THIS

Sometimes the plane will be too full and you'll get required to check your overhead bag. So you can't count on it for fragile/valuable stuff. In my case I bring a cloth handbag stuffed in there so I can take out the electronics and carry it as a personal item. I've had to use it a couple times.

Yeah… I’ve been the person that has to tell (metaphorical)you that I am checking your bag.

It really makes our job easier when you have a backup plan for your electronics because it avoids a lot of conflict. Also.. we totally understand it sucks when we take your bag to check it.

i am always wondering how that would play out for me because if i remove the valuable stuff, there is nothing left to check in.

and i always come with two bags. one is laptops and the other is a musical instrument. i would not allow you to check in either.

If you want to be assured space in carry on:

1. Double check the rules before you go and verify everything you are taking is allowed.

2. Purchase some sort of ticket that has priority boarding (also make sure you are at the gate enough time ahead to take advantage of it). First / premium economy.

3. If we run out of space and you must check something. You may be upset: If you argue, and escalate the situation- it probably won’t convince us of anything, we will just call the police and have you removed from the flight. 99.9% of the customer services agent (and their supervisors) job is defined by clear procedures that they have no control over.

> 3. A locked hard case like a pelican case that fits within the carry-on size requirements and is well used will look a lot less suspicious than a bunch of laptops in a backpack.

Interesting. Why is that? I have a personal laptop, a work laptop and a very old laptop that I play with (e.g., changing ram, adapting ports, multiple operating systems, etc.) If I ever move to another country I would need to pack my 3 laptops with me in my backpack. Would that look suspicious?

I went back and forth on writing this point. I think the nuance missed in the original point, is that professional people that travel with work stuff like to take their equipment in pelican cases. So that looks less suspicious than backpack, but both are probably ok.

> Generally how suspicions you look is proportional to how much flack you receive.

Definitely come with a cleanly shaved face. People with long beard are hassled much more often at US borders/airports for some reason.

(observed even with my own experience from about 100 US visits)

There's a bit of a cultural stigma against most beard styles for some reason. Back when I was delivering pizza I found that it made a $0.50 difference in the average tip to be clean shaven.

It’s not your beard, it’s their dyslexia. They are confusing you with throwaway725962, who is on the terrorist watchlist.