[tavilach]

For various reasons, I am going to be performing a clean install of Tiger on my PowerBook. I'm still somewhat new to the Mac world, and as such, I've never had to transfer files and settings to a new OS X installation. I definetely want to hold onto all my emails and such. For this, what files should I back up? How about stuff like iCal and iPhoto? Do I just back up my iPhoto Library folder? I'm not sure what to do with iCal.

If anyone has done a clean install, and had to back up these types of files, can you tell me what files you backed up? Not only do I want to be sure that I don't forget to back up files for certain programs, but I also want to be sure that the files I do back up are enough to provide my new installation with all the necessary information.

Any help is most appreciated .

[hscherrer]

What worked perfectly for me is following procedure:

1. Using Carbon Copy Cloner duplicate the system partition to an external drive.
2. Make a clean install of 10.4
3. When starting up, select the option to migrate from an old Mac. Select the external drive as source.

In my case every application and all documents were available without problems afterwards.

[Randman]

I did an archive and install on two different Macs and had zero problems.