A couple of questions about erase and install.

[JW008]

I posted this in another thread, but it was getting buried...sorry for the repost!

Hi, I'm planning on doing an erase and install when Leopard arrives and just had a couple of questions about the process (specifically backing up), since I've never done it before (and admittedly makes me a little nervous).

I have an external firewire hard drive, so all back up I'm planning on doing on that.

1) There's just a couple of applications that I want to save (since I'll just reinstall, iLife '08 and Microsoft Office from the DVDs), what is the best way to do this? I have .Mac, so should I use Backup to save these or can I just drag and drop the applications I want to keep onto the external hard drive? Are there other things that I need to worry about along these lines?

2) Since I have .Mac, I assume that my Address Book, my mail settings, my iCal, my keychain, etc. can be resynced (from .Mac) once I complete the erase and install. Is that correct?

3) What about my iPhone? I know my iPod will sync back with no problem, but I'm a little worried about my iPhone. Will the phone still recognize this as the computer it originally was paired with? Will I have to restore the iPhone as well? Should I save the restore files that go along with the iPhone when I'm backing everything up?

4) Perhaps the stuff I am most worried about are my pictures (in iPhoto) and my music/videos (in iTunes). If I back these up (using .Mac Backup) can I restore them EXACTLY as they were before? (i.e. same albums, events in iPhoto and same playlists, play counts, etc in iTunes) Is .Mac Backup the best solution or is there a better way to do it?


I know this is a long a post and I really do appreciate all the help anyone can give me!

 

[mad jew]

1) There's just a couple of applications that I want to save (since I'll just reinstall, iLife '08 and Microsoft Office from the DVDs), what is the best way to do this? I have .Mac, so should I use Backup to save these or can I just drag and drop the applications I want to keep onto the external hard drive? Are there other things that I need to worry about along these lines?

It depends on the apps, to be honest. Maybe list the apps you want to keep and we can tell you the best way of having them installed on the Leopard installation. For the majority of apps, keeping a copy of the actual app in the Applications folder should suffice. Then dragging this item to the new Applications folder should let you run the app as before. This isn't always the case, but it works for most apps.

2) Since I have .Mac, I assume that my Address Book, my mail settings, my iCal, my keychain, etc. can be resynced (from .Mac) once I complete the erase and install. Is that correct?

Yep. .Mac will let you resync your machine and grab all the iCal, Address Book, Keychain and some Mail settings back.

3) What about my iPhone? I know my iPod will sync back with no problem, but I'm a little worried about my iPhone. Will the phone still recognize this as the computer it originally was paired with? Will I have to restore the iPhone as well? Should I save the restore files that go along with the iPhone when I'm backing everything up?

Sorry, I'm not sure about the iPhone. However an iPod is synced to a library (and ultimately an iTunes library file). If an iPhone works in a similar fashion, then it should be fine with your Leopard install assuming you backup and restore your iTunes library correctly.

4) Perhaps the stuff I am most worried about are my pictures (in iPhoto) and my music/videos (in iTunes). If I back these up (using .Mac Backup) can I restore them EXACTLY as they were before? (i.e. same albums, events in iPhoto and same playlists, play counts, etc in iTunes) Is .Mac Backup the best solution or is there a better way to do it?

.Mac's Backup is okay but I generally just manually make a copy of my Home folder. Assuming you let iTunes manage your music, then just make a copy of the iTunes folder in your Music folder and you should be right. Drag it to the same spot on the Leopard install and that's it. The same applies to iPhoto. All your playlists and albums should be retained.

 

[JW008]

Thanks mad jew! Just one more line of questions. When I copy my home folder, that will backup everything that I might potentially need (iTunes/iPhoto libraries, all Applications, all iMovie/GarageBand files, Microsoft Office documents, etc.), correct? Basically, if I drag and drop my home folder onto the external drive, is that all I need to backup to ensure that all my files will be useable in Leopard? Is this as easy as dragging my home folder to the external drive?

Again, I appreciate the time!

Edit: I do let iTunes manage my music.

 

[mshale]

Thanks mad jew! Just one more line of questions. When I copy my home folder, that will backup everything that I might potentially need (iTunes/iPhoto libraries, all Applications, all iMovie/GarageBand files, Microsoft Office documents, etc.), correct? Basically, if I drag and drop my home folder onto the external drive, is that all I need to backup to ensure that all my files will be useable in Leopard? Is this as easy as dragging my home folder to the external drive?

Again, I appreciate the time!

This was my question as well. I also heard that it will be a bit better to actually go and reinstall the apps, as this will allow for a true clean install. So since i have the time, and the patience, i want to do this. the only thing is that i may have to email unsanity and tell them that i'm installing and get the activation codes again (i believe i have misplaced them...), right?

 

[mad jew]

Yeah, it's probably better to manually reinstall your apps. Backing up your Home folder will not back up your apps, since they are kept in a separate folder by default available to the system.