Notes from My PowerBook Changeover

Finally, I have finished saving the critical data on my old, dying Titanium PowerBook so that it can be moved onto my new Aluminum MiniBook. It occurred to me that I have now done this switch several times. (First from my old Pismo PowerBook to the TiBook, then several times from backups.) Yet I had never really documented how I did it. So here are the methods, for myself and for our loyal Mod-BLog readers. Please note, if you are buying a new Apple computer and your old one is not dying the way that mine is, the new start-up agent will do a lot of this for you. All of these procedures were performed under MacOS X 10.3.5.



IMPORTANT NOTE: I am NOT an expert at this. This is merely what has worked for me. Neither I, nor anyone here at Mod-BLog, provide any guarantee, warrantee, or other -tee that this will not completely mess up your computer, old or new.



Copying E-mail Between MacOS X Computers

1. Make sure you have the same version of Mail on both computers. If you do not, proceed at your own risk



2. Make sure you have been using Mail.App as your mail program on the old computer. If not, these instructions will not be of use to you - so stop now.



3. Save from your old computer to a backup drive:
   
   
   • the MAIL folder located at the location Users/[Your Username]/Library (where [Your Username] is the name you use to log into your computer - if you never log in, just use the one not called SHARED)
   
   
   
   • the file called "com.apple.mail.plist" at the location Users/[Your Username]/Library/Preferences (you may need to expand the window to see the full name)



4. Shut down, remove the backup drive from the old computer, and attach it to the new one. (I recommend an external FireWire hard drive for this, though depending on how big your Mail directory is, a ZIP disk or a CD may be big enough)



5. When the backup drive appears on the desktop of your new computer:
   
   
   • Copy the MAIL folder on the backup drive over the one located at Users/[Your Username]/Library/
   
   
   
   • Copy the file "com.apple.mail.plist: on the backup drive over the one located at Users/[Your Username]/Library/Preferences



6. Open the Mail program on the new computer. It should now have the same data the one on your old computer used to have

Copying Safari Bookmarks Between MacOS X Computers

Please Note: If you are a .Mac subscriber, all you have to do is run iSync on both computers with "Sync Bookmarks" checked off. Otherwise, this is how you proceed. In my case, iSync died long before the rest of the hard drive did, so I had a number of unsync'd bookmarks on my old Powerbook.

1. Make sure you have the same version of Safari on both computers. If you do not, proceed at your own risk



2. Save from your old computer to a backup drive
   
   
   • the SAFARI folder located at the location Users/[Your Username]/Library (where [Your Username] is the name you use to log into your computer - if you never log in, just use the one not called SHARED)
   
   
   
   • the "com.Apple.safari.plist" at Users/[Your Username]/Library/Preferences to your backup drive
   
   
   
3. Shut down, remove the backup drive from the old computer, and attach it to the new one. (I recommend an external FireWire hard drive for this, though depending on how big your Mail directory is, a ZIP disk or a CD may be big enough)



4. When the backup drive appears on the desktop of your new computer:
   
   
   • Copy the SAFARI folder on the backup drive over the one located at Users/[Your Username]/Library/
   
   
   
   • Copy the file "com.apple.safari.plist: on the backup drive over the one located at Users/[Your Username]/Library/Preferences



5. Open the Safari program on the new computer. It should now have the same data the one on your old computer used to have

Copying the Address Book Between MacOS X Computers

• Honestly, I just did it thru iSync, because I had not added to my address book on the old computer in a long time. Sorry, wish I had more data to offer.

Copying the iPhoto Library Between MacOS X Computers

1. Make sure you have the same version of iPhoto on both computers. If you do not, proceed at your own risk. This is a bigger risk than most of the others. The last few versions of iPhoto (like 3.0.4 and 3.0.3) have not been compatible in sharing their libaries.



2. Save from your old computer to a backup drive
   
   
   • the IPHOTO folder located at the location Users/[Your Username]/Library (where [Your Username] is the name you use to log into your computer - if you never log in, just use the one not called SHARED)
   
   
   
   • the "com.Apple.iphoto.plist" at Users/[Your Username]/Library/Preferences to your backup drive
   
   
   
3. Shut down, remove the backup drive from the old computer, and attach it to the new one. (I recommend an external FireWire hard drive for this, though depending on how big your Mail directory is, a ZIP disk or a CD may be big enough)



4. When the backup drive appears on the desktop of your new computer:
   
   
   • Copy the IPHOTO folder on the backup drive over the one located at Users/[Your Username]/Library/
   
   
   
   • Copy the file "com.apple.iphoto.plist: on the backup drive over the one located at Users/[Your Username]/Library/Preferences



5. Open the Safari program on the new computer.



6. iPhoto will say it can not find an iPhoto library, and offer you several options, Select "Find Library"



7. Navigate to Users/[Your Username]/Library/IPHOTO and click "OPEN"



8. iPhoto should now have the same data the one on your old computer used to have

Copying iTunes and iPod Info/LIbraries Between MacOS X Computers

• Honestly, my method is to use the iPod.iTunes application, which will pull all of the information right off of your iPod legally.