Help Me Backup for Leopard

[neoelectronaut]

Alright, I've got a 250GB HDD I'll be moving alot of my stuff over to in anticipation of a fresh install of Leopard.

I'm moving over any applications that aren't pre-installed and aren't free downloads, and I'm moving basically my entire home folder over.

My question is, in the case of iTunes and iPhoto, how do I make sure my ratings, playlists, play counts, etc, all move over, as opposed to just having to add all my songs back into a empty library when Leopard installs.

 

[TheStu]

Alright, I've got a 250GB HDD I'll be moving alot of my stuff over to in anticipation of a fresh install of Leopard.

I'm moving over any applications that aren't pre-installed and aren't free downloads, and I'm moving basically my entire home folder over.

My question is, in the case of iTunes and iPhoto, how do I make sure my ratings, playlists, play counts, etc, all move over, as opposed to just having to add all my songs back into a empty library when Leopard installs.

Well, you can certainly do that, and backing up your music is easy by just copying the whole music folder out, same with the pictures.

But, the better option would be an Archive and Install. This will leave all your old settings, and set all your old stuff into a folder called 'Previous System'. It is a really great way to go.

 

[DoreanGrae]

Alright, I've got a 250GB HDD I'll be moving alot of my stuff over to in anticipation of a fresh install of Leopard.

I'm moving over any applications that aren't pre-installed and aren't free downloads, and I'm moving basically my entire home folder over.

My question is, in the case of iTunes and iPhoto, how do I make sure my ratings, playlists, play counts, etc, all move over, as opposed to just having to add all my songs back into a empty library when Leopard installs.

iTunes: File > Backup to Disc. That should do it, though I don't know how much music you have, so it could be painful. There might be a way to do it using a HDD that I don't know about (hope so).

iPhoto: If you copy your iPhoto Library file (in your pictures folder) to your HDD, you should just be able to re-copy it to your computer HDD post-Leopard install.

 

[macjack1]

Alright, I've got a 250GB HDD I'll be moving alot of my stuff over to in anticipation of a fresh install of Leopard.

I'm moving over any applications that aren't pre-installed and aren't free downloads, and I'm moving basically my entire home folder over.

My question is, in the case of iTunes and iPhoto, how do I make sure my ratings, playlists, play counts, etc, all move over, as opposed to just having to add all my songs back into a empty library when Leopard installs.

My best advice would be to download SuperDuper,
free for cloning and very easy to use and clone your entire system over to the external drive. Once safely over there boot up from the clone and use Disk Utility to erase your internal HDD.

After that just do a straight up install to the internal drive and when you boot into Setup Assistant, just choose to port over hwatever you want from the old system.

-mj

 

[mrpeepers]

My best advice would be to download SuperDuper,
free for cloning and very easy to use and clone your entire system over to the external drive. Once safely over there boot up from the clone and use Disk Utility to erase your internal HDD.

After that just do a straight up install to the internal drive and when you boot into Setup Assistant, just choose to port over hwatever you want from the old system.

-mj

I have a USB2.0 External (Western Digital 'book')... How would one boot from that?

 

[blodwyn]

I have a USB2.0 External (Western Digital 'book')... How would one boot from that?

Intel Mac's can boot from USB. When your clone is done, open System Preferences>Startup Disk and choose the external disk

 

[mrpeepers]

Intel Mac's can boot from USB. When your clone is done, open System Preferences>Startup Disk and choose the external disk

Sweet! I have a new iMac (bought August 2007) and i am definitely doing this! So let me ask this question...

If I do this in preparation for installing Leopard. Should I do the "Erase & Install" option, and then import my applications and settings from the external? The one thing I am concerned about is my iMac came installed with iLife and I don't want to lose that.

Basically:
So if I clone my iMac (August 2007) with SuperDuper onto an External Drive.

And then I choose to install the Erase & Install option for Leopard.

Can I re-import my PROGRAMS and SETTINGS and DATA from the External install?

 

[macjack1]

Sweet! I have a new iMac (bought August 2007) and i am definitely doing this! So let me ask this question...

If I do this in preparation for installing Leopard. Should I do the "Erase & Install" option, and then import my applications and settings from the external?

Yes. That's fine.

The one thing I am concerned about is my iMac came installed with iLife and I don't want to lose that.

All "bundled applications" are on the disks that shipped with your Mac. But since they will be cloned over, they should be ported back.

Basically:
So if I clone my iMac (August 2007) with SuperDuper onto an External Drive.

And then I choose to install the Erase & Install option for Leopard.

Yes.

Here is a link to a good article written for Tiger by FJ but applicable to Leopard for the most part.

-mj

 

[mrpeepers]

with superduper do i need to COPY "Macintosh HD" or "Disk Image".... In order to boot from the external?

 

[macjack1]

with superduper do i need to COPY "Macintosh HD" or "Disk Image".... In order to boot from the external?

You copy "Macintosh HD" to your external. Then Repair Permissions, choose the external in System Preferences >> Startup Disk and restart from your clone.

-mj

 

[mrpeepers]

thanks MJ...

So not lets say I have Leopard clean installed. I simply plugin my external USB2.0 drive and drag the applications folder from my external drive to my iMac and voila?! My programs are installed and ready to go, iLife included?

Or is there an automated tool to do this?

Or should I just use the "Migration Tool" in Leopard to get the applications, files, settings from Tiger?

 

[rmh]

So not lets say I have Leopard clean installed. I simply plugin my external USB2.0 drive and drag the applications folder from my external drive to my iMac and voila?! My programs are installed and ready to go, iLife included?

Well, some programs might have to actually be reinstalled, as some of the necessary files are embedded within the system library.

 

[macjack1]

thanks MJ...

So not lets say I have Leopard clean installed. I simply plugin my external USB2.0 drive and drag the applications folder from my external drive to my iMac and voila?!

No, no mrpeepers! When you have Leopard installed use the Setup/Migration Assistant which comes up when you first boot it. You cannot hand drag most applications and you will also have updated versions of all your Apple Apps. Mac OS X contains thousands of invisibles that will not copy without the help of cloning utility.

Use Setup Assistant (aka: Migration Assistant) to do the work. It knows what to migrate and what not to. When you boot the new system, Setup Assistant will come up, take your hand and walk you through every step.

If don't use Setup Assistant and later to decide to use Migration Assistant in /Utilites/Migration Assistant it can get dicey and you might wind up with 2 Homefolders with some of your stuff in each. A mess. So do it right away.

-mj

 

[cwedl]

I will just be copying the itunes music folder and iphoto picture folder over. to my HDD. Also don't forget to deauthorise your iTunes Music store account from itunes before the Clean install!

 

[macjack1]

I will just be copying the itunes music folder and iphoto picture folder over. to my HDD. Also don't forget to deauthorise your iTunes Music store account from itunes before the Clean install!

See this Apple support topic. Specifically "Note #2":

"While you may need to enter your account information again after initializing the hard disk, initializing the hard disk itself does not remove the computer from the list of authorized computers. If you plan to initialize the hard disk prior to selling or donating your computer, deauthorize the computer first, then initialize the hard disk."

-mj

 

[cLin]

While on this topic, ~/users/name/library should have all my user settings right? So if I copy that folder, do a clean install and install my programs that I want, I can just copy those folders back into the correct spot to get the settings I had?

 

[mrpeepers]

Thanks Mj for your time and patience!!!

So Leopard is installed
Computer reboots
Setup Assistant aka Migration Assistant Appears
______asks me where i want to import applications, settings, users from
____________i point to the external COPY of "Macintosh HD"

and off i go!

right?

*i think i am "getting" this

 

[macjack1]

While on this topic, ~/users/name/library should have all my user settings right? So if I copy that folder, do a clean install and install my programs that I want, I can just copy those folders back into the correct spot to get the settings I had?

EDIT: The path you mean is /Users/~/Library.

No, don't just copy your ~/Library. You will be overwritting newer files with older ones and you will have a mess. Rather copy your Home folder to some external media. (preferably your whole system as I mentioned before.)

Then hand migrate, if you want to do it the long and painful way.

Your data in ~/Documents
~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook (copy the whole folder)
~/Library/Application Support/iCal(copy the whole folder)
Also in ~/Library/Application Support (copy whatever else you need)

~ /Library/Keychains (copy the whole folder)
~/Library/Mail (copy the whole folder)
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist This is a very important file which contains all email account settings and general mail preferences.

~ /Library/iTunes (copy the whole folder)
~/Library/Application Support/Safari (copy the whole folder)
~/Library/Application Support/iMovie (copy the whole folder)
~/Pictures/iPhoto library
~/Music/iTunes
~/Movies/iMovie

If you want cookies:
~/Library/Cookies/Cookies.plist
~/Library/Application Support/Webfoundation/HTTPcookies.plist

For Entourage users:
Entourage is in Documents/Microsoft user data
Also in ~ /Library/Preferences/Microsoft


-mj

 

[macjack1]

So Leopard is installed
Computer reboots
Setup Assistant aka Migration Assistant Appears
______asks me where i want to import applications, settings, users from
____________i point to the external COPY of "Macintosh HD"

and off i go!

right?

*i think i am "getting" this

By Jove, you've got it ;-)

-mj

 

[cLin]

EDIT: The path you mean is /Users/~/Library.

No, don't just copy your ~/Library. You will be overwritting newer files with older ones and you will have a mess. Rather copy your Home folder to some external media. (preferably your whole system as I mentioned before.)

Then hand migrate, if you want to do it the long and painful way.

Your data in ~/Documents
~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook (copy the whole folder)
~/Library/Application Support/iCal(copy the whole folder)
Also in ~/Library/Application Support (copy whatever else you need)

~ /Library/Keychains (copy the whole folder)
~/Library/Mail (copy the whole folder)
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist This is a very important file which contains all email account settings and general mail preferences.

~ /Library/iTunes (copy the whole folder)
~/Library/Application Support/Safari (copy the whole folder)
~/Library/Application Support/iMovie (copy the whole folder)
~/Pictures/iPhoto library
~/Music/iTunes
~/Movies/iMovie

If you want cookies:
~/Library/Cookies/Cookies.plist
~/Library/Application Support/Webfoundation/HTTPcookies.plist

For Entourage users:
Entourage is in Documents/Microsoft user data
Also in ~ /Library/Preferences/Microsoft


-mj

Thank you. I was looking for that post somewhere, couldn't find it. And that's what I planned on doing, sorry if I didn't explain well. I already moved my media, documents and anything I create/downloaded. I was wondering more of where my user settings where like the cookies and etc. for the cookies.plist, is that for Safari? Or will it work for Firefox?

 

[slb]

Alright, I've got a 250GB HDD I'll be moving alot of my stuff over to in anticipation of a fresh install of Leopard.

I'm moving over any applications that aren't pre-installed and aren't free downloads, and I'm moving basically my entire home folder over.

My question is, in the case of iTunes and iPhoto, how do I make sure my ratings, playlists, play counts, etc, all move over, as opposed to just having to add all my songs back into a empty library when Leopard installs.

I just wanted to mention that you don't have to do any of this right now. When you start the OS X Leopard install, it gives you the option of backing everything up to an external drive using Time Machine.

 

[mrpeepers]

By Jove, you've got it ;-)

-mj

Sweet!

Do i have to pick what I want to migrate over, if yet, do you recommend selecting to migrate everything, if not, what do you recommend?

I ask because I'm a Mac n00b (since august 2007).

 

[hamis92]

By Jove, you've got it ;-)

-mj

Does Migration Assistant also work with USB drives? I've always thought that you need a FireWire drive (or another Mac) to run it..

I'm thinking about going with clean install of Leopard and using Migration Assistant to import my data to the new OS, but if USB drives are not supported then I'll just upgrade.

Thanks

 

[mrpeepers]

Does Migration Assistant also work with USB drives? I've always thought that you need a FireWire drive (or another Mac) to run it..

I'm thinking about going with clean install of Leopard and using Migration Assistant to import my data to the new OS, but if USB drives are not supported then I'll just upgrade.

Thanks

I was told that with Intel Macs, you can use USB drives in this manner.

 

[ghking]

I've done it with a usb drive on my PPC. Not booting from it, but migration assistant will recognize it.