"Reinstall" issues

karavite

karavite

Registered
After slow folders, crashing mail and iphoto I finally gave in and installed a new OSX partition while keeping my old one around. This seems to have cleared up my former problems, but getting this new partition up to where I had the old partition is a major pain. I realize some of my questions are addressed elsewhere in this forum, but since I have so many, why not a new thread?

1. Is it as simple as copying my user and applications folders to the new partition? I tried and I get a fair amount of messages saying certain files cannot be copied - such as something in Mail. I copied a user account folder from old to new and when I booted on the new partition, this account was not recognized.

2. Speaking of Mail, how can I copy my old local mailboxes (and the mail in them) to the new partition/Mail?

3. What about XWindows. I have a very nice and solid set up on the old partition. I used fink so I belive I everything is in my /sw directory. The finder will not let me copy all the files in /sw to the new drive. In regards to XWindows, what about developer tools? Do I have to run that massive download and install all over again? Or do I live in a wonderful world where I can just copy the /Developers folder to the new drive (one can dream).

4. What about preferences and serial numbers/registration? I have tons of apps set up just the way I like them - any way to easily move this all over without redoing everything?


Thanks
 
In case anyone else goes through this pain, I thought I'd just reply to myself with everything I experience in getting my new partition to match my old.

For Mail: if one copies the folder from /Users/username/Library/Mail to the same location in the new install, you can transfer your local mailboxes and the mail that is in them.

I copied a user acount to the new install and it is not recognized at log in.

OfficeX - Copied the folder
/Users/username/Library/Preferences/Microsoft to the new install and Word, Excel and PowerPoint settings are there, but not Entourage even though there were two files - Entourage Settings and Entourage Preferences in the Microsoft folder. Weird.

Did the same (as with Office) for Pepper and many other apps and did not need to enter my serial number.

As for my /sw directory, I'm going to tar it and email or ftp it to myself. Whoopee!
 
I found the easiest way to get around this problem was to boot into MacOS 9 and copied my home directory to another hard drive and any of my applications.

Then installed OS X ran the setup application then booted back into os 9 and copied over the data.

Works everytime no problems I have done this about a dozen times.

Starbuck
 
Starbuck - you are a genius! I thought about this same thing - "What about OS9" but was too lazy to try it. I'm almost Classic free (just have to buy Quicken and Photoshop for OSX I guess, but still need it for all the disk utilities - which didn't help my current situation) so I often forget our old friend OS9.

Can I ask you a question? Why on Earth you have done this a dozen times?
 
Thats a good question I have installed OSX so many times as I work for a Appel Service Centre in the UK.
 
I have found that doing the same thing via OS X and a new user does the same thing. However, you might get some permissions errors.

Yes, OS 9 is relegated to an OS X disk utility. :D Although it's been a great operating system, I won't be at all sad saying goodbye to the Classic Mac OS.
 
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