Transfering mail, address book data, etc.

[JBARN]

How do transfer all important data from mac mail, address book, iCal, Bookmarks from Firefox, etc.? (Mac OSX 10.5)

My Macbook (OSX 10.5) jammed, refusing to run any application, and refusing even to run finder, so I decided to format and re-install everything. And since I have long wanted a larger hard drive, I have now got a new (larger) one and have re-installed OSX and all my applications on it, and I now intend to use the old one as an external hard drive for backup.

I have succeded in taking out the old hard drive, installing it in a harddisk box (so I can now use it as an external hard drive). BUT: How do I transfer all important data from mac mail, address book, iCal, Bookmarks from Firefox, etc.?

Obviously, I cannot access the applications (mac mail, address book, etc.) for exporting the data, so is it possible to locate the right files and then drag-and-drop them into the right folders onto my computer and the new hard drive? I do not want to copy the entire user profile from the old hard drive or the entire home folder, since I fear that whatever conflict made the old one jam, will then be "spread" to the new one, too.

Thank you in advance.

 

[Dimwhit]

2 options:

- You could use Migration Assistant and migrate your old user folder on the old drive into the new one. But there is a chance that whatever messed up the old system would get transfered over.

- Or you could navigate the old drive to the /Users/YourUser/Library/ folder and grab what you need:

Mail - copy over the /Library/Mail folder
Address Book - Copy over the /Library/Application Support/Address Book folder.
etc...

It will all either be in the /Library folder or the /Library/Application Support folder (in your user directory, not the root level.

 

[JBARN]

Thanks

Thank you Dimwhit, I hope I can make it work.