help - moving applications/files across macs

A

aoyegoke

Guest
not strictly a mac newbie although I switched about a year ago and haven't looked back since. In fact, I'm so enamored with my iMac that I decided to upgrade and get one of those spanky looking powerbooks. I take delivery of a 12.1 pb as soon as they can get it off the production line. Soon as it arrives though, I'm not quite sure how to go about migrating everything I have accumulated over the year..

(i) Applications - particularly MS Office
I know I can copy files over via firewire (connecting my new pb to my iMac booting up the iMac in target mode) but what exactly do I copy?
I have MS office which I'd like to move across, but are there any preference/system files I need to move across that may be in different directories.

(ii) Mail - entourage
How do I make sure all my existing mail/folders are copied across exactly as they are now, including my existing email accounts (I have about 5 email addresses with mail pulled from different mail serves into my entourage inbox)

(iii) Music - iTunes
How do I get all my playlists and music files over and will my i-pod freakout if connected to a new apple machine - will it in fact synchronize with the new pb or do I need to register the machine somewhere

(iv) Misc - Calendar / address book, etc
Where do these apps store their data and how do I move these across

(iv) What about screen savers and drivers?
How do I copy these across?

My ideal situation would be that when I power up my new pb, i have exactly the same set-up and apps that were running on my iMac. As if nothing had changed except the machine.

A tall order maybe, but if anything I know this forum is great for getting sensible answers and great direction/pointers.
cheers
 
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aoyegoke said:
(i) Applications - particularly MS Office
I know I can copy files over via firewire (connecting my new pb to my iMac booting up the iMac in target mode) but what exactly do I copy?
I have MS office which I'd like to move across, but are there any preference/system files I need to move across that may be in different directories.
I would just reload all your applications from the CD or redownload them, but if not, then just copy the application folder over and if you want your preferences copy /~(Home)/Library/Preferences. Some apps might not like this and might install other dependencies, which I would then just redownload and reinstall. I like doing this anyways because it kind of "cleans up" the system :)


aoyegoke said:
(ii) Mail - entourage
How do I make sure all my existing mail/folders are copied across exactly as they are now, including my existing email accounts (I have about 5 email addresses with mail pulled from different mail serves into my entourage inbox)
Entourage you can usually just copy over /~(Home)/Documents/Microsoft User Data and remember to copy across the preferences like I outlined in the first question.


aoyegoke said:
(iii) Music - iTunes
How do I get all my playlists and music files over and will my i-pod freakout if connected to a new apple machine - will it in fact synchronize with the new pb or do I need to register the machine somewhere
Copy over /~(Home)/Music and that should take care of it.. although I am pretty sure you can define within iTunes where to save everything.. so check with iTunes and find out.. I think default is where I specifed though. And you'll probably need to just set your iPod to sync with whatever playlist in the new machine, just like you did with your current one.. it shouldnt be a problem at all. You'll probably have to reimport all your songs though which again shouldnt be a problem.


aoyegoke said:
(iv) Misc - Calendar / address book, etc
Where do these apps store their data and how do I move these across
If you are talking about iCal and the Address program then. Address stuff is found in /~(Home)/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/ and iCal is found in /~(Home)/Library/Application Support/Calendars/


aoyegoke said:
(iv) What about screen savers and drivers?
How do I copy these across?
Screen savers are found in a couple of places. You can find them here: /~(Home)/Library/Screen Savers/ or here: /Library/Screen Savers/

Im not sure which drivers you are talking about, but most drivers just come preinstalled with OS X so you dont' need to worry about them.. If you actually did install some drivers then you should just reinstall them on the new system.

Hopefully these answered most of your questions :)

Cheers!
 
OP
A

aoyegoke

Guest
thanks Murlyn.. great advice there

Souds like it is plain sailing. And to think I tolerated PCs for so long!

cheers Murlyn.
 

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