Moving Files to a New HDD

[kajitox]

I'm installing a new HDD into my MBP this weekend and I was wondering of some good ways to transfer things like my iPhoto albums, iTunes music and playlists, Mail accounts and messages, Address book, iCal calendars and Keychain passwords. I saw in a previous post that someone used Migration Assistant, can I do that to transfer these things? Are there better strategies? Any help on this is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[toolbox]

This util here!

http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html

Carbon Copy Cloner. Will clone one drive to another! Works well.

You could also if you have a time machine backup you could restore from that.

 

[kajitox]

Ah, but I don't want to keep everything intact, I really want to start from the beginning, yet still keep large things like Photos, Music, playlists, albums, contacts, etc. Should I be backing these up individually?

 

[toolbox]

If you installing from scratch, put the drive your removing in a external USB 2 HDD caddy - then you can drop and drag things at your leisure

 

[i.shaun]

iPhoto:

Go into HDD/users/yourname/pictures/

Copy the "iphoto library" file, which should contain all your photos, organization, and everything. If you right click (or command+click) and select "show package contents", the photos should be in there.


When you get the new or reformatted computer, drop the iphoto library file back into the pictures directory where you got it. Delete the one that is there, if there is already one present. iPhoto will open and check it's default location for the library file, and use that.


iTunes:

Same thing. go to
HDD/users/yourname/music/iTunes/

copy the entire "iTunes" folder to an external HDD, and replace it when you get the new computer.

if you backup to DVD, burn the music folders first. They take up the most space and may take several DVDs to copy, depending on the size of your library. After that, go back and copy the iTunes folder itself, but exclude the large "iTunes music" folder which you have previously copied. Simply copy the rest of the files and replace everything on the new computer with the saved files.



just to clarify:

HDD/users/yourname/music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Artist/Album/song.mp3

That bolded folder is the one to copy. It contains the library file, and other files needed. Inside that folder is "iTunes Music" which contains all the actual music and movie files.

 

[kajitox]

iPhoto:

Go into HDD/users/yourname/pictures/

Copy the "iphoto library" file, which should contain all your photos, organization, and everything. If you right click (or command+click) and select "show package contents", the photos should be in there.


When you get the new or reformatted computer, drop the iphoto library file back into the pictures directory where you got it. Delete the one that is there, if there is already one present. iPhoto will open and check it's default location for the library file, and use that.


iTunes:

Same thing. go to
HDD/users/yourname/music/iTunes/

copy the entire "iTunes" folder to an external HDD, and replace it when you get the new computer.

if you backup to DVD, burn the music folders first. They take up the most space and may take several DVDs to copy, depending on the size of your library. After that, go back and copy the iTunes folder itself, but exclude the large "iTunes music" folder which you have previously copied. Simply copy the rest of the files and replace everything on the new computer with the saved files.



just to clarify:

HDD/users/yourname/music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Artist/Album/song.mp3

That bolded folder is the one to copy. It contains the library file, and other files needed. Inside that folder is "iTunes Music" which contains all the actual music and movie files.

This is much more like what I was looking for. Thank you, my hesitation in doing this was that I didn't know if (like a Windows machine) if information was stored all over the place, instead of in the nice, localized folders.

Thanks.

 

[kajitox]

Any help for the Keychain backups? I try to export them, but the export option is disabled...is there anything I need to do to make it allow me to export them?