It's all in!

[Texican88]

I ended up with one of these bags for my laptop: Sterling 15.6" Slim Brief (CLA103) - Solo and it fits perfectly flat in the rear trunk . It's not the sturdiest bag in the world but with an added sleeve for the laptop I certainly feel confident that there won't be any damage on my way to/from work. I wouldn't take it into the courtroom, but if all you want is something to carry your computer in, it should fit the bill.

 

[bamamate]

When powered off, regular laptop drives park the heads off the platters so they can take a good pounding without damage. SSD of course have no heads so that isn't a concern with them. The main thing is you don't want to laptop to bounce around inside the compartment. That can damage it. As long as it is secured to the bike so that it only moves with the bike then you shouldn't have any problems. The bike’s suspension will give it a much better ride than UPS does.