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Reinstalling Tiger, how do i properly back up files?

V

VE3NEF

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 30, 2006
30
0
Canada
So i'm going to do a clean reinstall of Tiger, because my computer has been running rather slow the past few months. I have a Lacie hardrive, with the lacie back-up software. So what would be the easiest way to get all the important stuff back onto my computer?

I want:
Photos
Contacts
Adium Contacts
Bookmarks from Safari
(I store my itunes stuff on my lacie, so i don't have to worry about that)

Would it be easier if i just dragged all the stuff i wanted onto the Lacie, then drag it back when i'm done re-installing?


Any ideas, comments, would be appreciated!
 
VE3NEF said:
So i'm going to do a clean reinstall of Tiger, because my computer has been running rather slow the past few months. I have a Lacie hardrive, with the lacie back-up software. So what would be the easiest way to get all the important stuff back onto my computer?

I want:
Photos
Contacts
Adium Contacts
Bookmarks from Safari
(I store my itunes stuff on my lacie, so i don't have to worry about that)

Would it be easier if i just dragged all the stuff i wanted onto the Lacie, then drag it back when i'm done re-installing?


Any ideas, comments, would be appreciated!
Click to expand...

I think so, because backing up all your excess settings would just clutter it back.
 
psychofreak said:
I think so, because backing up all your excess settings would just clutter it back.
Click to expand...

lol, great point. So can I just drag all my contacts off my computer and put them in a folder on my lacie? Can I do the same with with my adium contacts?
 
I agree. Wiping and rebuilding seems silly without trying other things first. I use Cocktail to run periodic tasks and clean out old log and cache files. Maybe try that first and check your activity monitor for any processes that are using up excessive resources at idle.
 
aquajet said:
I agree. Wiping and rebuilding seems silly without trying other things first. I use Cocktail to run periodic tasks and clean out old log and cache files. Maybe try that first and check your activity monitor for any processes that are using up excessive resources at idle.
Click to expand...

Yes, I understand you're point. I use System Optimizer X for cleaning stuff up. When I first got it, it worked well and I noticed a difference. But lately my computer has been laggy, especially when playing games.

I'll give cocktail a whirl before I try the reinstal!
 
aquajet said:
I agree. Wiping and rebuilding seems silly without trying other things first. I use Cocktail to run periodic tasks and clean out old log and cache files. Maybe try that first and check your activity monitor for any processes that are using up excessive resources at idle.
Click to expand...

ok, i tried cocktail and i didn't notice a difference.
Should I just do the reinstall then?

edit: Oh yeah, what would be the best way of moving my iphoto library, so that I still have my folders that i put photos in?
 
VE3NEF said:
ok, i tried cocktail and i didn't notice a difference.
Should I just do the reinstall then?

edit: Oh yeah, what would be the best way of moving my iphoto library, so that I still have my folders that i put photos in?
Click to expand...

Try OnyX. It Optimize your Mac OS by cleaning unnecessary stuff and optimize your hard drive, and it's Free!

http://www.titanium.free.fr
 
IJ Reilly said:
Also, check your hard drive with Disk Utility. If it reports the need for any repairs, let us know.
Click to expand...

Good call! It does need repairs!

Verifying volume “Macintosh HD”
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking Catalog hierarchy.
%)
Checking Extended Attributes file.
Checking volume bitmap.
Volume Bit Map needs minor repair
Checking volume information.
Invalid volume free block count
Invalid volume free block count
uld be %@ instead of %@)",2)
7944394
7944391
The volume Macintosh HD needs to be repaired.

Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit


1 HFS volume checked
Volume needs repair


So how do I repair it? I'll do some searching as well.
 
trainguy77 said:
Try booting off the tiger install disk then going into disk utility in one of the menus from their you can repair the disk.
Click to expand...

Right, this works, or also running fsck in Single User Mode.

I recommend running it until it reports no repairs have been made. Occasionally, it requires more than one pass. If Disk Utility says that the disk could not be repaired, all is not lost, but you'll need heavier artillery.
 
IJ Reilly said:
Right, this works, or also running fsck in Single User Mode.

I recommend running it until it reports no repairs have been made. Occasionally, it requires more than one pass. If Disk Utility says that the disk could not be repaired, all is not lost, but you'll need heavier artillery.
Click to expand...

I did the repair thing via my tiger disk. It worked fine... maybe i'm just loosing my mind about this 'computer slowing down thing'. I remember things just being generally faster, like iTuens, and iPhoto. But maybe since i have over 45 gigs of iTunes, and almost 4000 photos that the reason its lagging because I just don't have the power. I DO however remember playing Homeworld 2 on max settings, and not having it lag. Now, it lags like hell.


Maybe, I'm just going insane like the doctor said I would?
 
VE3NEF said:
Maybe, I'm just going insane like the doctor said I would?
Click to expand...

Well, if you'd wiped the drive and reinstalled that would have been a certain sign of insanity. ;)

Are you keeping iPhoto or iTunes open most of the time? The former especially is a real horsepower hog, with large photo libraries in particular. And even if you open, then close these applications, OSX is going to create virtual memory swap files on disk which don't get deleted until you restart the Mac. That will slow things down. So try rebooting if the Mac is getting really draggy.

Also, I'm wondering now how much free hard drive space you've got.
 
Wow.. okay so i went to that Titanium site and Downloaded and ran maintenance, and now my macbook is performing extremely slow..

Any one know why that would be?
I had it run everything it could run basically, and had it 'optimize' everything fully, which at the time led me to believe it would run better, not worse :(
 
Star Destroyer said:
Wow.. okay so i went to that Titanium site and Downloaded and ran maintenance, and now my macbook is performing extremely slow..

Any one know why that would be?
I had it run everything it could run basically, and had it 'optimize' everything fully, which at the time led me to believe it would run better, not worse :(
Click to expand...
Have you restarted since you ran that program?
 
Yes i didnt directly afterwards, and it took sooooooo long to boot back up, and then the top bar took like 5 minutes to load and it beachballed the whole time!

and now the icons always appear in a wierd order up top now.. and everything slow.

I rechecked permissions on my own and nothing came up. I dont really know what to do after that since it was always fine before. It started to lag a tad, so i Dl'd and ran that on the suggestion to speed operations up a bit and now its slower then ever..
Did it delete something it shouldnt have during the maintenance?

i am confused hahaha
thanks for the help
 
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