As moving day gets closer, you will probably be very busy packing boxes, reviewing checklists and looking forward to getting settled in your brand new home. In your rush to get on with things, however, you must make certain that you do not get sloppy when it comes to packing. It does not matter if you are going to be the one to move your possessions or if you have engaged the services of a professional moving company, as in either instance you will want to make certain that your computer or computers receive special attention.
Any kind of carelessness when moving a computer can result in either mechanical failure or damage caused by the normal physical shock that can happen in the course of transportation. There are a number of procedures that are recommended by the American Moving and Storage Association that you should go through when you are in the process of packing your computer.
The first thing you should do is to prepare hard drive. Make sure that you have made backup copies of all your data and then keep them safely stored, with the original program disks, either in a lockbox or in some other form of very strong container. You should then make certain that the drive does not contain any CD’s.
The next step is to park the hard disk. You will need to make certain that the recording heads have been parked prior to the computer being moved. Generally speaking, this step will remove the chance of any shock being caused to the hard disk. When the automatic park and lock systems have been successfully powered down, the disk will retract the recording heads automatically from the data area and put them into a safety zone.
There are a number of personal computers that will expect you to activate the park procedure by running a program. IBM and the great majority of hard disk clones use the program SHIPDESK.EXE, which is capable of parking the heads. This program can usually be found on the diagnostic disk that was included with the computer when it was originally purchased. The program can be run either from the menu of the diagnostic disk or you can instead copy the program to your hard disk and then run it from there. When making use of SHIPDISK, there will be a blinking red light on the drive. This means that the hard disk had been successfully parked. Once you have secured your drives, the system should be turned off and all cables removed from the rear of the unit. The next step is to pack the computer properly.
The best method of moving a printer is to make use of the original box, complete with the original foam. If you are moving a laser printer, you should take out the ink cartridge in order to prevent spillage.
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