back up assistance- I'm lost!

E

edonnell

Registered
Apple support has identified a need for me to go back to square one-- they are going to help me re-format my hard drive --as soon as I am through doing a back up. I have NO idea how to back everything up-- I have copied my documents, music, and photos onto CDs . So they are fine.
Now I haven't a clue how to get my email address book off , and then BACK back into my mail, (not Mac email, done through my Service provider ) and the same with my Netscape 7 bookmarks.


Also, am I doing this the hard way??-- I have never needed to back up everything at once, and most of my computer life I used Windows, which makes this even more confusing for me . Is there a device that doesn't cost a years salary and will do this more efficiently?? It would be wonderful not to have to reload all of the Applications , Printer and Scanner stuff, my Netscape--the CD for my Hi-speed is about 20 versions out of date-- need an easier way!

Any help would be most appreciated!
 
Do you use the Mail.app email client in OSX? If you do, here is how to backup you emails:

1. In Finder, go to your Home folder, Library, Mail. Inside will be sub folders: "Mailboxes" and one folder for each of your accounts. It's named after your email address or account name. Go into those folders and you'll find files named similar to your mailboxes such as "Deleted Messages" "INBOX" etc. If you configured Finder to NOT hide file extensions, then those files will have the extention ".mbox" Copy those files into a safe place and that's your back-up. Your best bet is to just copy the whole "Mail" folder in Home->Library->Mail.

2. To restore them: after you have your reinstall completed, run Mail.app, setup your account again. At this point your mail boxes are all empty. Go into the File menu and select Import Mailboxes. There are 2 ways: "Mail for MacOSX" or "Other". The "Mail for MacOSX" will allow you to import mailboxes in Mail.app's format. When you select this and move forward, it'll tell you that you need to specify where those files are located. At this point, you should point it to the location of where you backed up those mbox files. That "Mail" folder you backed up in step 1.


Netscape should have a bookmark manager that opens in a new window. To be honest I haven't worked with Netscape since version 4.7, so hope I'm not being too vague. If you go into the Bookmarks menu, see if there's an option to manage your bookmarks. Basically get to a window where it shows you all your bookmarks at once. If it has a menu, then look for an option to Export Bookmarks. Exporting your bookmarks will dump them into an HTML document. Backup that HTML file, use it later to Import bookmarks and that will restore your bookmarks.
 
Lycander said:
Do you use the Mail.app email client in OSX? If you do, here is how to backup you emails:

1. In Finder, go to your Home folder, Library, Mail. Inside will be sub folders: "Mailboxes" and one folder for each of your accounts. It's named after your email address or account name. Go into those folders and you'll find files named similar to your mailboxes such as "Deleted Messages" "INBOX" etc. If you configured Finder to NOT hide file extensions, then those files will have the extention ".mbox" Copy those files into a safe place and that's your back-up. Your best bet is to just copy the whole "Mail" folder in Home->Library->Mail.

2. To restore them: after you have your reinstall completed, run Mail.app, setup your account again. At this point your mail boxes are all empty. Go into the File menu and select Import Mailboxes. There are 2 ways: "Mail for MacOSX" or "Other". The "Mail for MacOSX" will allow you to import mailboxes in Mail.app's format. When you select this and move forward, it'll tell you that you need to specify where those files are located. At this point, you should point it to the location of where you backed up those mbox files. That "Mail" folder you backed up in step 1.


Netscape should have a bookmark manager that opens in a new window. To be honest I haven't worked with Netscape since version 4.7, so hope I'm not being too vague. If you go into the Bookmarks menu, see if there's an option to manage your bookmarks. Basically get to a window where it shows you all your bookmarks at once. If it has a menu, then look for an option to Export Bookmarks. Exporting your bookmarks will dump them into an HTML document. Backup that HTML file, use it later to Import bookmarks and that will restore your bookmarks.
Click to expand...

Hi Lycander, is this the same principle for ical?

Thanks
 
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