switched - now I need some help

After 15 years with a PC I am switching to a mac but still going to keep the sony vaio handy as i go through this process.

I bought the powerbook used with quite a number of programs installed that the previous owner left on. It is my understanding that unlike a pc, when a program is installed on a mac enviornment that all the files go into one folder as opposed to all over the freakin place like a pc.

I want to back up the programs just incase of a hard drive or OS disaster, call it the "blue screen of death" fobia being used to windows. neye:

Is a backup on a mac that simple - just copy the folder to a cd or external HD for future need or is there another way to do it?

Thanks for any help to a mac newbie, but not a technology newbie.

Phil

Some apps you will be able to just copy the folder.... some you might have to dig deeper into the system.....

To retain your settings you might have to go digging.

e.g.
YOUR HARD DRIVE/LIABRARY/PREFERENCES

USER/LIABRARY/PREFERENCES ...

etc, etc...

Now, some of them might not be all that important, but some of them could be, all depends what app you had installed.

To be safe.... just make a backup of the entire HD...

Welcome

I made the switch (back) about a year ago. Best thing I ever did. My Dell laptop SUCKS. It is soooo slow. Too much antivirus and antispyware running in the background. I have only ONE application (a mortgage one) that is windows. otherwise i would smash my Dell laptop on my front cement steps.

yeah, you really only need to backup your programs and files onto a HD.

you should have software to reinstall your system on CDs when he sold you the computer.

good luck!

IIRC, there are a couple of programs—like Adobe Creative Suite—for which it's not enough just to copy the application file. But for most of them it's indeed enough just to copy the program file. As a rule the programs that you just drag into your applications folder will be good to go if you just back up the main file, the programs you install using installer will need more files. For that you would have to dig really deep down and I don't recommend that.