[Stuncle Eve]

I need to take my MacBook in for service next week (sound card, flickering screen), so I plan on resurrecting my old iBook G4 so that I can continue working.

My initial plan was to do a fresh backup of my MB to an external FW drive, then delete the Documents folder on my iBook, and replace it with a copy of my MB Documents folder. That way, I would at least have the most recent version of all my documents.

Then I realized that I wouldn't have my recent emails, or iCal & Address Book info. My iBook still has all the applications that I use regularly, so that's not an issue, but what other files should I drag over to my iBook to ensure that I'm not missing any of the basics?

Thanks.

[Sherman Homan]

That should work, as long as you deal with the permissions issues. But you won't have all your other preferences and settings.
Why not do a Migration Assistant account transfer? That way you will have everything. If the repair takes a week then you aren't dead in the water. If the Genius boys and girls wipe your hard drive then you haven't lost anything.

[Stuncle Eve]

Well, that sounds like a plan.

I also realize that once I get my MB back, I'll want to transfer any new & modified files from the iBook back to the MB with a minimum of bother.

Maybe I should just go on vacation!

[Big Mac]

You could use Migration Assistant as recommended earlier or you could use a backup utility such as .Mac Backup. Or, you could back up your MacBook's Home folder to the external drive, then create an identical new user on your iBook, then login as root, swap Home folders and do a little terminal voodoo, as described here. But if you do what you had planned to do, you'll a number of problems with permissions. Personally, I think the easiest route is to use .Mac Backup since doing a full drive image from the MacBook to the iBook is not an option (and Migration Assistant is also a good choice as long as the two accounts are not named the same) - but you may not want to buy a .Mac membership.

[mfbernstein]

To elaborate on Big Mac's suggestions you can:
1) Create a new account on the iBook, from that new account, rename the home directory of your old user there.
2) Connect your MacBook to your iBook via firewire cable, with the former in Firewire Target disk mode. Simply copy your MacBook's newer home directory over.
3) Fix the permissions on the copied home directory (via terminal it would be 'sudo chown -R realusername /Users/realusername')
4) Log into iBook as realusername, and all your settings should be intact.

(you'll want to make sure that the applications and their versions are as close as possible on both machines)