[sledsbehave]

i am swaping out the 4gig in beige powermac, and putting in a 20gig. i am going to do a fresh install of OS X and i need to know what files i should swap over to the new hard drive in order to keep my address book, mail, safari, mouse, etc. settings. as well as transfering my emails from mail to the new hard drive.

or something simple: can i copy the whole hard drive to the new one? if so how?

[bradoesch]

If you want to transfer OS X, use Carbon Copy Cloner.

[Jasoco]

Everything in your Library folder under your Home Folder. That holds all the settings for the user. And the main Library folder at the root of the HD. That's all the rest of the settings.

[typoon]

If you are a .mac member you can do this using Backup. IT will save your Keychain and other settings.

[COmie JOe]

there are a few hidden files in the root of the HD. I highly recement Carbon Copy Cloner, it is the only way to go.

[Jasoco]

I used to use CCC, but really, I don't like restoring from a backup. I prefer reinstalling when I get a chance. It's just fun. So I use SilverKeeper and restore just what I need. I keep everything I can in my Home folder so I don't need to do much grabbing of Main Library files.

[sunrunnerfire]

Silverkeeper? I havent run across that program? does it work well? what are its options?

[Jasoco]

Originally posted by sunrunnerfire:
Silverkeeper? I havent run across that program? does it work well? what are its options?

Basically, it copies each file to the HD. Don't think it leaves it bootable (In the case of OS X. OS 9 will stay bootable) or anything but it works 95% well.

It has a couple small quirks. And it's been stuck at 1.0.1 forever. I keep checking for a new updated version with the one stupid bug fixed, but nooo.. Not yet. LaCie.. you may be a great company, but your software could use an update.

The three bugs I've seen are if you play with the collapse triangle while copying too much it crashes.

And when the list of drives/folders to backup sometimes gets corrupted and duplicates items or some item won't work. This is annoying since I have 3 partitions and sometimes it forgets one and replaces it in the list with the second to last.

The last bug is not as annoying, but stupid. While copying onto an existing backup it will notify you of anomolous files. If the date of a file being replaced is newer than the one being copied or something, it will bring up a confirm dialog. In the dialog is a checkbox that says "Remember selection for next time." If you check it, and the dialog comes up for something else, the checkbox is still checked, but the value is actually unchecked. So you have to manually uncheck and check it to get the value to stick. It drove me crazy the first time I used it.. well, second time obviously.

Either way, the three bugs are minimal and workaroundable. The last one could be avoided if they added an option to "Always assume default choice." that would skip he dialog and pretend you checked the box and clicked the default choice. I find it useful and easy. And since my HD is a LaCie, I feel comfortable using a LaCie branded app.

[sunrunnerfire]

Cool, thanks for the info