Having moved cross-country recently, this proved to be a fool's errand. If it doesn't fit in your carry-on, leave it behind. I paid a lot of money to have a bu

Having moved cross-country recently, this proved to be a fool's errand. If it doesn't fit in your carry-on, leave it behind. I paid a lot of money to have a bunch of junk shipped, and all I received was a pile of twisted metal-- it was all destroyed in transit. Trying to salvage the data from the hard drives cost me hundreds of hours, was only partially successful, and the only aspects of the mess you get reimbursed for are shipping cost and retail value of old computers (do you have all of the receipts/invoices for them?). You don't get paid for your time or grief. The only country I've ever seen that takes issue with travelers carrying too many <item_type> is Japan, but the more of anything you have, the more opportunity for any single piece to get lost along the way. Transfer important data to two encrypted xTB-sized personal drives and toss those in your carry-on. You are your own courier. Make peace with the fact that all of your gear is disposable when you get on that plane. If you insist on shipping... * Bring copies of your original purchase receipts/invoices for items shipped with you on the plane. You will not be able to substantiate any loss/damage claim if the documents you need to prove losses were themselves lost or destroyed. * You can increase handling diligence by adding a gun to the parcel and following legal firearms-shipping procedures. Carriers attract a lot of heat when they lose guns. This may or may not be an option for you, and will limit your carrier options to FedEx (and maybe DHL?). * Remove all hard drives from their chassis. (This one, I overlooked, and being the only part I actually cared about it cost me dearly.) * Have your stuff packaged by a UPS/eq. Store. DO NOT do it yourself, even though you would do a better job of it-- when you need to make a damage claim against the carrier, your claim will ALWAYS be denied on account of improper packaging if you're the one who packed it. * Some insurance riders will require signature confirmation at delivery. When you sign for it, write "DAMAGED" above your signature-- whether or not there's anything apparently wrong with the package. Not all damage is immediately obvious, the terms for reporting concealed damage are easily faulted, and signing that pad with only your name affirms you received the package intact-- and guarantees any subsequent damage claim will be denied.