[mpancha]

So I'm giving up on fixing OSX (10.4.2) and I'm going to do a clean install.

What I want to actually backup and reload are:

iphoto library and folders
itunes library and folders/playlists
Mail - all email/accounts/settings/rules
Documents - no brainer, I can do that bit in my sleep.

the iTunes part I know I just back up my itunes music folder, badabing badaboom done.

with iPhoto, I want everythign to be intact after I format... or basically want all my prefs as is after I format. What do I backup, and how do I put it back (order and all) after I format?

with Mail -- this is the reason I'm doing a clean format.. it keeps grouping/threading conversations even though I dont have that option selected. In doing so, when I click on a threaded discussion, Mail pretty much craps out. Once I click on a threaded message, I can't click on anything else after that. I use Mail to access my mail through my personal website, and 2 gmail accounts. I want all my emails/rules/folders ... everything in tact after I format. What all do I have to backup in order to do so?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Randman]

Do you have .Mac?

[Sophus]

Originally Posted by mpancha

So I'm giving up on fixing OSX (10.4.2) and I'm going to do a clean install.

What I want to actually backup and reload are:

iphoto library and folders
itunes library and folders/playlists
Mail - all email/accounts/settings/rules
Documents - no brainer, I can do that bit in my sleep.

the iTunes part I know I just back up my itunes music folder, badabing badaboom done.

with iPhoto, I want everythign to be intact after I format... or basically want all my prefs as is after I format. What do I backup, and how do I put it back (order and all) after I format?

with Mail -- this is the reason I'm doing a clean format.. it keeps grouping/threading conversations even though I dont have that option selected. In doing so, when I click on a threaded discussion, Mail pretty much craps out. Once I click on a threaded message, I can't click on anything else after that. I use Mail to access my mail through my personal website, and 2 gmail accounts. I want all my emails/rules/folders ... everything in tact after I format. What all do I have to backup in order to do so?

Thanks in advance for any help.

If it's only that Mail bug thats causing you to reinstall - have you considered deleting mail preference files and rebuilding mailboxes?

[OreoCookie]

If Mail is your problem, then I think you should look at your mailboxes first. If one of your mailboxes is corrupted, then a clean install will do no good at all. Just a waste of time. Also, you cannot expect Mail to work correctly after installing your system from scratch if (one of the) mailboxes was corrupted.

There are a few possible things you can try without reinstalling your system. First of all, I would exclude a damaged harddrive. In my case, a harddrive died on me, so I had a bad sector in the Mail prefs. Bad luck, it hung accessing/writing certain parts of the Mail prefs.

So what you could do is simply create a new user, and test Mail a bit with a test account. If Mail works, you can copy your Library/Mail folder, correct the permissions and the owner and then try again (don't forget the Mail prefs in Library/Preferences).

If you cannot copy, you probably have a hardware/filesystem problem.

If you can, then maybe it was a glitch in the pref file. I would try deleting the prefs file (make a backup copy first!) and then rebuild your account infos. Don't worry, it won't touch your messages.

[mpancha]

Randman >> nope, no .mac, still can't justify the cost when I can do the same with an external HD (I have no use for the roaming addressbook/book marks)

Sophus >> yup, mail is what is making me want to do a format. And no, didn't try deleting the prefs yet and rebuliding the mailboxes. didn't know how to go about it without losing my Rules and my email.

OreoCookie >> thanks for the steps, I'll give it a try tonight.

I'm about 70% sure its not a hard drive issue. I say that because if I ever shut down my ibook, and then power it back on (be it 1 second later, 1 hour later, or 1 week later) there is a really loud whirring sound. i can't tell if its jut the CPU fan, or the hard drive. All I know is I hear the same sound when I power up the IBM x-series servers that I'm setting up at work, and at least then I know its the ungodly number of fans inside the unit making that noise.

[Randman]

Quit Mail. Search for "mail". Trash the file that has .plist at the end.

Open Mail (you won't lose anything like folders or files or rules but you will need to set preferences again).

To rebuild, click on each and every mailbox then scroll to Mailbox and select Rebuild (do this for all).

[mpancha]

I have 3 .plist files... is that right? Just want to make sure before I delete the files.

Thanks!

[mpancha]

for some reason this isn't showing up as updated on the forum, .. so *bump*

[Randman]

3 will be fine. Just trash all of them. Basically the plist keep track of the preferences. But if something went wonky, the plist could have wonky data.

[mpancha]

Originally Posted by Randman

3 will be fine. Just trash all of them. Basically the plist keep track of the preferences. But if something went wonky, the plist could have wonky data.

That fixed the mail issue.

and that leaves two last major annoyance,.... printint. I posted about a month back with a problem printing to a Brother MFC 3240 connected directly to the iBook. basically if I try to print, the software I'm printing from crashes. It does the same if i try to print to PDF ever since I installed the printer. I installed the up to date Tiger drivers from brother.com ... but I'm still unable to print period.

I can't find the old thread on that subject, but if there's any advice on this issue it would be welcome.

And last but not least, for some reason, ever since I went from 10.4.1 to 10.4.2 when I login to OS X there is jerkiness in the animation. Specificalyl, I have 4 users on this iBook, if I click one, it does a little animation where it fades away all the users leaving just the selected one, and that user moves to the center of the login box. it seems to skip the majority of its Frames during the animation for some reason. There is also a delay of about a second between switchign applications once I am in OS X. Generally I have Safari/Mail/Excel/iCal/iTunes/Adium always running. Occasionally I'll open up somethign else for quick use but it'll be closed within the hour. Again, this only appeared upon upgrading to 10.4.2 from 10.4.1

Thanks again.

[Randman]

1) You should contact Brother.

2). Have enough ram? Do maintenance? Caches and Autofill entries and RSS feeds will bog a system down for 1 user, much less 4.

Log the others off and see if it continues.

[mpancha]

Originally Posted by Randman

1) You should contact Brother.

2). Have enough ram? Do maintenance? Caches and Autofill entries and RSS feeds will bog a system down for 1 user, much less 4.

Log the others off and see if it continues.

1) haven't contacted Brother yet, just need some time to sit down and do so... But the thing is, programs crash even if I Print to PDF, which leads me to beleive its more of an OS level problem... but I could be wrong.

2) 768mb RAM, Maintenance wise, not really, I've never had the need to do anything other than power it on. The only regularly used accounts are mine and my wife's, the other two are one for VPC running win2k, which is logged into maybe once every week or so... and the second is for guests to use with very limited access to only safari and MSN messenger. No rss feeds in any accounts other than mine, and that is only 2 of them, and I clear my cache every few days just out of habit. Don't have anything autofilling in Safari.

[mpancha]

and I'm back to formatting. Going to go ahead and do it tonight, but before doing so, aside from the Iphoto library in my users folder, anything else I need to keep iPhoto intact when its formatted?

figured out this part... for any of the future folks with this same problem/question, Just copy the "iphoto library" folder from your home folder -> pictures. As long as you have that you're set. Just replace the folder when the time comes.

And mail as well, if I want to keep my rules, and my email, do I just keep the "MAIL" folder?

Thanks.

[mpancha]

Finally did the format, thought I backed up everything, but eh, if somethign can go wrong, it usually will.

My iTunes songs are all there, but none of my folders. And, the songs, half of them didn't keep the id3 tags I had so painstakingly entered.

I also forgot to deauthorize my ibook pre-formatting... so that's one less authorized computer I can have... lovely.

And I forgot to backup iCal.

all in all, its one of my better formatting sessions, at least i still have my email/folders/music/photos... and I can once again print.