Backup in Preperation for tiger!?!?!

zenatekzenatek
Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
Hey,



I am going to be backing up in preparation for a clean install of Tiger when it arrives on Friday *Crosses Fingers* I want to make sure I burn all the files I will need onto a DVD. This is the first time I have done this on a mac since I switched in January.



If I just copy my Library folder to a DVD will that contain:



Safari Bookmarks?

Address Book?

Emails?

iCal Data?



Is all the music data and playlist data from iTunes stored in the Music folder? And the same for iPhoto with the Picture folder? If I back up those two folders will I get all I need in the respect of music and pictures?



I would just backup my whole Home directory but I have to split it up onto multiple directories. I am also just so use to windows when you have to search through a billion locations to get your email and data for specific programs like itunes.



Advice would be greatly appreciated!

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    zozo Posts: 3,117member
    there are some directories to backup in your users/'name'/library. Mostly in your Applications Support folder. If you're not in a hurry you can mark the ones you will need and just back those up. For example the Caches folder is useless and a ton of others.



    You can try and go to versiontracker.com and search "backup" and there should be a few tools that will help you choose what is necessary.



    I'm a bit old school and do it all by hand, but the most esential stuff is Address Book, Safari Bookmarks, Keychain, and whatever logs and stuff some apps create in the Applications Support folder. For example Adium keeps all logs in the Application Support folder and I back those up.
  • Reply 2 of 5
    defjefdefjef Posts: 62member
    to backup your Safari bookmarks you would need to backup "Bookmarks.plist" which is located at your home Library>Safari>Bookmarks.plist

    I assume your would replace it to the same location once you get Tiger. At least that's how it works with Panther.



    for your address book I recommend that you open Address Book then go to File>Backup Database... then select a place to save your backup to. When reimporting it you should be able to simply double click it and it will open into Address Book



    For email:

    go ahead and back up your mail folder found in your home Library and then when reimporting it you should be able to open Mail and then select File>Import Mailboxes...>Mail For Mac OS X... then follow through and select your folders that contain the ".mbox" files. This should import them into a folder titled "Import" in the Mail Application that you can then go back through and reorganize to where you may want them.



    for iCal:

    you can export calendars out of iCal or you could copy them from your home Library>Calendars. To reimport them you should be able to double click on them, opening them into iCal.



    all of your Music files (such as mp3s and m4as) will by default be found in your home Music>iTunes>iTunes Music. Also be sure to grab the iTunes 4 Music Library file and the iTunes Music Library.xml files to bring all of your playlists, playcounts, ratings information, etc.. These are found in the directory above iTunes Music (your home Music>iTunes). So in conclusion for your music, back up Music>iTunes and you should be doing good unless if you've got your music stored to another location.



    For iPhoto:

    Backup your "iPhoto Library" found in your pictures file in your home loaction. to restore it just place it back there once you've updated to Tiger.



    You should also grab your Keychain like ZO suggests but that's not necessary if you can manage to remember all of your passwords. It can't hurt and is recommended, so should you want to back that up it's located at your home library>Keychains and is usually called "login.keychain" unless if you've made more, in which case there would be additional keychain files there.



    Those methods should work. I hope I didn't make it sound too confusing because it all really is simple.
  • Reply 3 of 5
    zozo Posts: 3,117member
    LOL... remember all my passwords???



    Jesus, I have something like 300 websites, applications, and certificates in Keychain, most of them different from one another.



    Thank GOD for Keychain
  • Reply 4 of 5
    lundylundy Posts: 4,466member
    IF you have a spare partition, external drive, or large iPod, using Tiger's Migration Assistant automates this whole process. See my sticky in this forum for details.
  • Reply 5 of 5
    ineedag5pbnowineedag5pbnow Posts: 145member
    i plan on doing an archive and install, saving all my user information, but just out of curiosity, how would i go about saving my user account before a clean install? where is this info found?
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