Yes. We move computers and servers, and we do more of that work than most office movers will own up to. The physical side is ours end to end. The disconnect, the port and cable labelling, the anti-static packing, the transport, and the re-rack at the new building.
What goes back to your IT team is the configuration layer, the part that decides which system talks to which. Everything gets powered down before it moves, and there’s a manufacturer’s number behind that rule, not a preference.
Desktop workstations, monitors, docking stations and peripherals. Servers, racks and data cabinets. UPS units, switches, routers, patch panels, phone-system hardware, large-format displays, printers and copiers.
Two things kill hardware in transit. Static and vibration. So boards and drives get anti-static wrap, not the plastic that goes around a filing cabinet. Servers, switches and workstations get crated or foam-padded, and loads roll on padded, strapped dollies instead of bouncing over sills.
Everything is photographed before it comes apart, and each workstation is labelled with the person’s name and the desk it lands on. Our own crews do the work, no subcontractors, same as our commercial jobs for IKEA, Cozey and Samsung.
A mover who says they’ll handle your whole server migration is telling you something about how the day will go. Your team or your managed provider owns the backups, the power-down order, the final network and server configuration, and bringing systems back up. We work alongside them on that last part so nothing sits half-connected. Our end runs until the gear is racked, labelled and ready to switch on.
The failure mode is never a dropped box. It’s cables yanked with nothing written down, and an IT team burning days rebuilding what should have taken an hour. So labelling comes before unplugging.
Your IT team does. They run the shutdown in order and back up the day before, because the order matters and they know it. Our crew handles the physical disconnect once the machines are down, and we photograph the back of every rack before a cable moves.
Chipman Relocation, a commercial relocation firm, says it flat: “Do not ask your employees to handle the IT disconnect and reconnect of their equipment.” Disconnect the evening before, reconnect the morning after.
The fragile part isn’t the case or the screen. It’s the platters inside a spinning hard drive.
Seagate’s own datasheet for its Exos X24 enterprise drive rates it at 40 Gs of shock while it’s reading or writing, and 200 Gs when it isn’t running. Both figures sit on the same 2 ms pulse, so it’s a straight comparison. Powered down, the same drive takes five times the hit.
In plain terms, a running drive has its heads flying a hair above the platter. Power it off and they park. That’s why nothing rides live, and why “just leave it on, we’re only going two floors” is a bad idea. One floor is plenty of jolts.
Solid-state gear is a smaller worry, and the same manufacturer shows why. Seagate’s sheet for the Nytro 1370 SSD lists 1,500 Gs powered down and publishes no read/write shock figure at all. No heads, no platters, nothing to state. Smaller risk, not zero. Back up either way, and keep the copies away from the machines.
A rack is heavier than it looks. Enconnex, which builds them, puts an empty 42U rack at 275 to 350 pounds, and most 42U racks at a static weight capacity of 2,000 to 3,000 pounds including the frame. Rolling capacity is lower than static, because in their words a stationary object isn’t subject to the additional stresses of movement.
ServerLIFT, which builds the lifts data centres use, is blunter. A populated rack “could tip over, damaging it, other racks, the facility infrastructure, or worse yet people,” so it says to unload most of the equipment before moving a cabinet.
So it’s a per-job call. Loaded is faster. Stripped is safer, so we’ll often ask you to pull the gear first, then shock-mount and strap the cabinet. Weight, path and casters decide it. Measure the route early, because a rack that fits the server room but not the freight elevator is a move-day problem.
Hiring a mover doesn’t hand off responsibility for what’s on the drives. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, in its Q&A on how BC’s Personal Information Protection Act applies when work is contracted out, puts it plainly: the obligation holds “even though the contractor has temporary physical custody of the records; you continue to have informational control.”
So chain of custody isn’t paperwork theatre. Every piece is counted before it leaves and counted again at the new site. Tell us which drives hold client records and we’ll plan the load around them.
In a tower, the building runs the day. The Health & Technology District beside Surrey Memorial Hospital is an eight-building campus, City Centres 1 through 9, with City Centre 5 opening September 2027. A move there means a booked service elevator, an after-hours window and floors that need security to open them, the same as any office move around Surrey City Centre.
Out in Campbell Heights or Port Kells it flips. Loading is at grade and the constraint is the dock. Either way we work evenings and weekends inside the shutdown window your IT team sets, and we’re open 24 hours, so the gear is racked before anyone logs in.
An IT move is priced by how long it takes. Backups done, elevator booked, destination room ready. When one of those slips, a crew waits in a hallway for security to open a floor, and that’s time on the clock nobody wanted to spend.
Pricing is time-based, billed on the actual hours the crew works. There’s a minimum charge covering the truck and crew to your door, then the clock runs in 30-minute increments, so you never pay for a rounded-up hour nobody worked. It’s broken down for you up front.
Get the backups done, book the elevator, have the server room ready. Our IT and server relocation crews in Surrey plan the load around your shutdown window, not the other way around.
No. Distance isn’t what hurts a drive, shock is, and one floor gives you plenty of jolts. Seagate rates its Exos X24 enterprise drive at 40 Gs of shock while running and 200 Gs powered down, so a parked drive takes five times the hit.
Yes, the day before. Full copies, stored apart from the machines they came off. Backups are your team’s job and they’re the real protection. Our packing protects the hardware. The backup protects what’s on it.
Sometimes. We can move a rack loaded, shock-mounted and strapped. But an empty 42U frame already weighs 275 to 350 pounds, a populated rack can tip, and ServerLIFT says to pull most of the gear first. Stripping it is often safer.
Set the new server room up first. Get the room, the power and the racks ready before the rest of the office lands, so your IT team can start bringing systems up while we’re still landing desks.
Back up the day before. Have IT power everything down in order. Photograph the back of every rack. Book the service elevator at both buildings. We handle the disconnect and the labelling from there.
Planning an office move with servers in it? Call Local Movers Ltd at (778) 242-2877. Six years in business, our own crews, 5.0 stars across 395 Google reviews. We’re at 8567 164 St in Surrey, answering 24 hours.
Local Movers Ltd · 8567 164 St, Surrey, BC V4N 3K4 · (778) 242-2877 · Open Mon-Sun
