How to pack for a flight?

How should I pack my computer so I can ship it on a flight I'm taking?

• I'm taking a flight with one transfer and need to ship my tower, monitor, and sound system with me. I'm afraid it's going to get trashed, any ideas on how I can pack it so ...show more

• Answer:

  I agree - Absolutely bring it to somewhere like a UPS store and have them pack & ship it. Insure it, too. Do NOT let the airlines handle it. I fly a lot for work and see them just tossing luggage and boxes around. The company I work for ships computers DHL & UPS all the time without trouble. We pack our own stuff, but since we do it a lot, we're pretty practiced at it. I think you'd be better off having them pack it, even if it costs a bit. And, OF COURSE, take a very excellent backup of your hard drive to pack with you on the plane. If possible, make or have someone make an "image" or "snapshot" of your hard drive and put it on DVD - just in case disaster strikes. I'm totally paranoid - I had a "mirror hard drive" built so I could just swap hard drives if the unthinkable happened. By the way, if your computer does get munched, the hard drive might still be good - you can bring it to a computer repair place and they can "slave" it to another machine and get your data. Of course, it will cost you. Good luck!