More (perhaps unnecessary) detail:
In a few months I'll probably be moving. Everything will be shipped in shipping containers that are packed by us and collected and shipped by truck. They will likely spend time in warehouses at one or both ends of the trip. Let's assume everything is in those shipping containers for 1.5-2 weeks. A humid environment is likely.
I have a lot of old PC hardware and while I may get rid of some stuff, I'm going to have a lot to move. It needs to be packed efficiently, but there are some items that I'm especially anxious to not have turn up dead at the other end of the trip.
I plan to stuff all PC cases as densely with hardware as possible. In most, I think I might remove heatsinks/etc and stack the case full of motherboards (in static shielding bags). In some cases I might instead have 1 motherboard screwed into the case with expansion cards either stacked loose(bagged), or installed in the slots. Is stuffing the cases this way asking for disaster?
For the most valuable motherboards - are they safer if screwed into a case or if bagged loose, maybe stacked 2 or 3 high in a cardboard motherboard box?
For a valuable card, is it safer for the card to be screwed into a case and installed in a slot? Or in a static shielding bag loose?
I'm inclined to think that screwing cards into a case could subject them to vibration and small amounts of flexing whenever the shipping container hits a bump.
Is a card more immune to ESD when installed in a slot? Or is a shielding bag better?
I have CPU trays but I'm not sure how I can assuredly keep them clenched tightly together so the CPUs don't spill out.
My biggest quandry is probably hard drives. Is a hard drive safer when installed in a case, or when boxed?
My main concern is 7-8 large modern hard drives in a file server. I could remove all the drives and pack them in a box, or I can leave them installed in the case. I don't know which is safer.
I have other hard drives, but these are the most concerning since data is at risk if I lose more than 2 of them, and they are the most expensive to replace. I will have a backup of the most critical data, but the rest of it relies on double parity (SnapRAID) due to the impracticality of making a 1:1 backup of all of it.
If the answer is box, I have a limited number (not enough) of foam shipping containers, but they take a lot of space per drive. I also have those plastic clamshells that drives sometimes come in.
My remaining bulk of hard drives will have to be piled pretty close together with some bubble wrap, I can't be too generous to them due to how many "miscellaneous" old drives I have.
Curious what anybody's experiences have been with transporting your hardware in bulk. Did anything turn up dead? Anything you think you did right or wrong?