Paxboy,
the main reason I took laptop to the USA was as a back up storage device (i did use it for other things whilst there though) I have an 'image tank' type device which is fine but wanted to have the pictures in more than one place - just in case. The CD burning option is ok but again I have no way of checking that the process has worked.
I do have a old metal camera case which would take the laptop bag and fit inside suitcase quite well or just not take the laptop at all and hope that my image tank does not fail / get lost / stolen / damaged etc.