I think you will have almost everything you want saved if you back up your home directory. Just drag it onto your DVD-R and burn the disc.
Er, a few more things:
Your NetInfo stuff (accounts info, etc, etc) is found in /var/db/
Anything you added to /Library
That's most of it.
The account stuff you can recreate at setup on the new laptop, if there's just you, but I can't imagine doing it for the umpteenhundred accounts on a server.
The /Library stuff is a mixed bag, unfortunately, some of which is Apple installed, and some of which is not. You only need to move over the changed.
(Helpful hint along those lines: When you first get your machine, and/or wipe and install a new OS, enter the Terminal and type:
Code:
find /Library -name \\* > FreshLibrary
This gives you a listing, in fully qualified path form, of every file in your virgin /Library. You can use this list as a 'do not backup' list for rsync, etc, and vastly reduce your backup needs/time.)
rogue is correct. Almost everything you need is in your home folder. Here's the break-down of its contents:
Library: All of your personal settings (application preferences, browser bookmarks, mail, etc) are stored here.
Music By default, iTunes keeps its music library here.
Pictures By default, iPhoto keeps its image library here.
Movies: By default, iMovie puts its video projects here.
Documents and Desktop: These are where you most likely save your own files.
Sites If you enable web sharing, this is the site that loads for your user. If you don't use web sharing, you don't need to copy this.
Public If you ever want to share files with other users on your computer or the network, you would place them in here. The contents of this folder, unlike the others, are accessible by all other users.
Comments
Originally posted by rogue27
I think you will have almost everything you want saved if you back up your home directory. Just drag it onto your DVD-R and burn the disc.
Er, a few more things:
Your NetInfo stuff (accounts info, etc, etc) is found in /var/db/
Anything you added to /Library
That's most of it.
The account stuff you can recreate at setup on the new laptop, if there's just you, but I can't imagine doing it for the umpteenhundred accounts on a server.
The /Library stuff is a mixed bag, unfortunately, some of which is Apple installed, and some of which is not. You only need to move over the changed.
(Helpful hint along those lines: When you first get your machine, and/or wipe and install a new OS, enter the Terminal and type:
find /Library -name \\* > FreshLibrary
This gives you a listing, in fully qualified path form, of every file in your virgin /Library. You can use this list as a 'do not backup' list for rsync, etc, and vastly reduce your backup needs/time.)
Library: All of your personal settings (application preferences, browser bookmarks, mail, etc) are stored here.
Music By default, iTunes keeps its music library here.
Pictures By default, iPhoto keeps its image library here.
Movies: By default, iMovie puts its video projects here.
Documents and Desktop: These are where you most likely save your own files.
Sites If you enable web sharing, this is the site that loads for your user. If you don't use web sharing, you don't need to copy this.
Public If you ever want to share files with other users on your computer or the network, you would place them in here. The contents of this folder, unlike the others, are accessible by all other users.
Hope this helps.