[bjresta]

Am trying to move to a new internal hard drive. All my files from the old internal drive are cloned to an external drive. I want to install Panther on the new internal drive, then transfer any necessary files to the new drive. Certainly the Users folder needs to be transferred and Applications, but what else? Should I save the old System subfolders and Library folders (from root level) and copy any / all of these back to the new disk? Some of the Application Support files would be critical, and Library holds screensavers, plugins, etc. for all users.

Are there any folders that I definitely should NOT copy back?

This is an old machine, so I don't have that new Apple application that does this for you. Just out of curiosity, what files does THAT move?

[Big Mac]

Okay, good question. The most important folders are your user's home folders, of course. Others will correct me if I am wrong, but the only thing you really need to care about in your /Library folder is any fonts you have added to the Fonts folder. Save any third party or retail Apple applications you have installed in your /Applications folder. If you're a Unix buff, there's a whole host to backup, but you probably don't have Unix applications installed. You definitely do not need to copy the System folder. Btw, you're referring to the Setup Assistant on newer Macs.

[Chuckit]

/Library/Application Support and /Library/Preferences should probably be carried over too. Many apps (such as everything by Adobe) store their registration info in /Library so you don't have to authenticate for each individual user.

The only folder that I'd say not to copy over is /System, since it should be more or less the same but it's generally best to have your system installed the Apple-approved way. Otherwise, I'd think it's generally your choice.