How safe is it (and what precautions should I take) if I want to transport my Macbook from class to class? So, last week my hard drive died. I took it to a repair shop, and the person said the hard drive died. I asked why, and he says it just happens (even though my Macbook Pro is only 1.5 years old). Talking with him, I mentioned that I transport my Macbook in sleep mode; he said I should not do that. Always shut it down, before transporting; he said, the hard drive failure may be unrelated though.

Now, I checked the internet, and the online consensus seem to be it's ok to transport while asleep (though you should wait for the hard disk to stop spinning), but I'm not too sure.

Can anybody here give me a qualified, confident answer? I would love to transport it, have a quick startup, but I don't want to damage my Macbook in the least bit.
Macbooks are designed to be transported around in sleep mode. When the machine enters sleep mode, the hard drive stops spinning, and because the hard drive is basically the only mechanically moving part in the Macbook Pro (aside from the optical drive which shuts off as well), there is no risk of damage to the computer.

Here are some other questions that you may find helpful


Does closing the lid put a MacBook Pro to sleep? Would it hurt the computer if I carry it around without shutting it down?
Transporting from home to work (~10 min by car), should I just make my MacBook Pro sleep, or shut it completely down first?
https://superuser.com/questions/449629/is-sleep-mode-harmful-for-a-computer