Clean OSX install with mail recovery

In article <tph-AFB651.11485710052004@localhost>,
tph DeleteThis @pcisys.no.spam.dammit.net says...
 > In article <MPG.1b0976d04ee7e1859897a6@mayonews>,
 > Al <spohn DeleteThis @nospam.bigfoot.com> wrote:
 >
  > > My wife's IBook running Jaguar has long been in need of a clean install
  > > due to a variety of problems. One of the more recent manifestations of
  > > problems is her mail application (normal client that comes with Jaguar)
  > > quits after spinning for about 5 minutes.
  > >
  > > My question - nothing about a clean install is particularly scary for me
  > > *except* for our ability to retain emails/mailboxes, etc. Granted,
  > > pulling this stuff in after a clean install could re-introduce whatever
  > > our problem is, but the importance of the email is such that we're
  > > willing to live with that risk.
  > >
  > > In order to get her mailbox structure and emails back do I need to do
  > > something at the unix level or is their an import mechanism within the
  > > mail client that I can use? Or might there be a utility for this type
  > > of thing? I'm reasonably unix savvy so working at that level with some
  > > basic instruction isn't too scary for me if that's what it boils down
  > > to.
 >
 > Have you considered just backing up her files, and restoring them after
 > the reinstall?

That would be great, but via what mechanism? Is there a mechanism for
doing so other than via a third party utility? I didn't know I could do
that after a clean install - but if you're talking about doing so
manually, how to do that for mail is the essence of my question. Feel
free to point me at docs or an FAQ if this is a more involved response
than you feel like dragging everybody through :-)

Thanks,
Al<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Clean OSX install with mail recovery 

In article <MPG.1b0976d04ee7e1859897a6@mayonews>, Al <spohn RemoveThis @nospam.bigfoot.com>
wrote:

 > My wife's IBook running Jaguar has long been in need of a clean install
 > due to a variety of problems. One of the more recent manifestations of
 > problems is her mail application (normal client that comes with Jaguar)
 > quits after spinning for about 5 minutes.

1. Back up the system
2. Run Mac OS X installer
3. Choose Archive & Install from options

This will clean-install the OS while preserving all user prefs.

meeroh

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If this message helped you, consider buying an item
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 >> Stay informed about: Clean OSX install with mail recovery 

Al <spohn RemoveThis @nospam.bigfoot.com> wrote in message news:<MPG.1b098074de9d96ef9897a7@mayonews>...
 > In article <tph-AFB651.11485710052004@localhost>,
 > tph RemoveThis @pcisys.no.spam.dammit.net says...
  > > In article <MPG.1b0976d04ee7e1859897a6@mayonews>,
  > > Al <spohn RemoveThis @nospam.bigfoot.com> wrote:
  > >
   > > > My wife's IBook running Jaguar has long been in need of a clean install
   > > > due to a variety of problems. One of the more recent manifestations of
   > > > problems is her mail application (normal client that comes with Jaguar)
   > > > quits after spinning for about 5 minutes.
   > > >
   > > > My question - nothing about a clean install is particularly scary for me
   > > > *except* for our ability to retain emails/mailboxes, etc. Granted,
   > > > pulling this stuff in after a clean install could re-introduce whatever
   > > > our problem is, but the importance of the email is such that we're
   > > > willing to live with that risk.
   > > >
   > > > In order to get her mailbox structure and emails back do I need to do
   > > > something at the unix level or is their an import mechanism within the
   > > > mail client that I can use? Or might there be a utility for this type
   > > > of thing? I'm reasonably unix savvy so working at that level with some
   > > > basic instruction isn't too scary for me if that's what it boils down
   > > > to.
  > >
  > > Have you considered just backing up her files, and restoring them after
  > > the reinstall?
 >
 > That would be great, but via what mechanism? Is there a mechanism for
 > doing so other than via a third party utility? I didn't know I could do
 > that after a clean install - but if you're talking about doing so
 > manually, how to do that for mail is the essence of my question. Feel
 > free to point me at docs or an FAQ if this is a more involved response
 > than you feel like dragging everybody through :-)
 >
 > Thanks,
 > Al

Do you have another Mac with some disk space ? If you do you can
boot up the iBook in FIREWIRE mode (hold down the T key as you boot)
then you can connect her Mac via a Firewire cable to the other and it
appears as a disk drive on the regular Mac.

Now what to do if you have sufficient space you can just copy you
wife's whole directory over to the other machine. If you just want
the mail just the directory ~/Library/Mail is enough. Also you should
copy anything that else off the machine that Apple does not install
(i.e. 3 party programs and other stuff).

Now you can do a clean install and then create all the users you had
before. Then you can copy the files you put on the other Mac back to
your wife's account.

--jim<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Clean OSX install with mail recovery 

In article <MPG.1b0976d04ee7e1859897a6@mayonews>,
Al <spohn.DeleteThis@nospam.bigfoot.com> wrote:

 > My wife's IBook running Jaguar has long been in need of a clean install
 > due to a variety of problems. One of the more recent manifestations of
 > problems is her mail application (normal client that comes with Jaguar)
 > quits after spinning for about 5 minutes.
 >
 > My question - nothing about a clean install is particularly scary for me
 > *except* for our ability to retain emails/mailboxes, etc. Granted,
 > pulling this stuff in after a clean install could re-introduce whatever
 > our problem is, but the importance of the email is such that we're
 > willing to live with that risk.
 >
 > In order to get her mailbox structure and emails back do I need to do
 > something at the unix level or is their an import mechanism within the
 > mail client that I can use? Or might there be a utility for this type
 > of thing? I'm reasonably unix savvy so working at that level with some
 > basic instruction isn't too scary for me if that's what it boils down
 > to.
 >
 > Thanks in advance,
 >
 > - Al

Mail allows to import old mailboxes ("File" menu), not only from Outlook
etc. but also from Mail itself. Therefore, just make a backup copy of
~/Library/Mail, and after re-installing Jaguar, import the mailboxes
from your backup copy. Watch out to import all mailboxes: the standard
mailboxes "INBOX", "Drafts" and "Sent Messages" are located in different
folders than your own mailboxes. Unfortunately the import function is
extremely buggy and likely to crash. Nevertheless I was able to restore
all my mails, it just needed a few attempts...

Regards,
Sven


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 >> Stay informed about: Clean OSX install with mail recovery 

Al wrote:

 > My wife's IBook running Jaguar has long been in need of a clean install
 > due to a variety of problems. One of the more recent manifestations of
 > problems is her mail application (normal client that comes with Jaguar)
 > quits after spinning for about 5 minutes.
 >
 > My question - nothing about a clean install is particularly scary for me
 > *except* for our ability to retain emails/mailboxes, etc. Granted,
 > pulling this stuff in after a clean install could re-introduce whatever
 > our problem is, but the importance of the email is such that we're
 > willing to live with that risk.
 >
 > In order to get her mailbox structure and emails back do I need to do
 > something at the unix level or is their an import mechanism within the
 > mail client that I can use? Or might there be a utility for this type
 > of thing? I'm reasonably unix savvy so working at that level with some
 > basic instruction isn't too scary for me if that's what it boils down
 > to.
 >
 > Thanks in advance,
 >
 > - Al

Not really a programming question, but the simplest way to save your
mail is to copy ~/Library/Mail and
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist somewhere, reinstall, and
then copy them back. No Unix necessary; you can do it from the Finder.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Clean OSX install with mail recovery 

In article <c7rnr3$t90$2@news.apple.com>, peter_ammon RemoveThis @rocketmail.com
says...
 > Al wrote:
 >
  > > My wife's IBook running Jaguar has long been in need of a clean install
  > > due to a variety of problems. One of the more recent manifestations of
  > > problems is her mail application (normal client that comes with Jaguar)
  > > quits after spinning for about 5 minutes.
  > >
  > > My question - nothing about a clean install is particularly scary for me
  > > *except* for our ability to retain emails/mailboxes, etc. Granted,
  > > pulling this stuff in after a clean install could re-introduce whatever
  > > our problem is, but the importance of the email is such that we're
  > > willing to live with that risk.
  > >
  > > In order to get her mailbox structure and emails back do I need to do
  > > something at the unix level or is their an import mechanism within the
  > > mail client that I can use? Or might there be a utility for this type
  > > of thing? I'm reasonably unix savvy so working at that level with some
  > > basic instruction isn't too scary for me if that's what it boils down
  > > to.
  > >
  > > Thanks in advance,
  > >
  > > - Al
 >
 > Not really a programming question, but the simplest way to save your
 > mail is to copy ~/Library/Mail and
 > ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist somewhere, reinstall, and
 > then copy them back. No Unix necessary; you can do it from the Finder.

Thanks, that's what I was looking for. The reason I asked the question
here was that I thought there was a possibility that programming would
be involved.

- Al<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Clean OSX install with mail recovery 

In article <MPG.1b0be2356142bdba9897a9@mayonews>, Al <spohn.DeleteThis@nospam.bigfoot.com>
wrote:

 > In article <c7rnr3$t90$2@news.apple.com>, peter_ammon.DeleteThis@rocketmail.com says...
  > > Al wrote:
  > >
   > > > My wife's IBook running Jaguar has long been in need of a clean install
   > > > due to a variety of problems. One of the more recent manifestations of
   > > > problems is her mail application (normal client that comes with Jaguar)
   > > > quits after spinning for about 5 minutes.
   > > >
   > > > My question - nothing about a clean install is particularly scary for me
   > > > *except* for our ability to retain emails/mailboxes, etc. Granted,
   > > > pulling this stuff in after a clean install could re-introduce whatever
   > > > our problem is, but the importance of the email is such that we're
   > > > willing to live with that risk.
  > >
  > > Not really a programming question, but the simplest way to save your mail
  > > is to copy ~/Library/Mail and ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist
  > > somewhere, reinstall, and then copy them back. No Unix necessary; you can
  > > do it from the Finder.
 >
 > Thanks, that's what I was looking for. The reason I asked the question here
 > was that I thought there was a possibility that programming would be
 > involved.

That's not what you are looking for. You are looking for the Archive & Install
option in the Mac OS X installer.

meeroh

--
If this message helped you, consider buying an item
from my wish list: <http://web.meeroh.org/wishlist><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Clean OSX install with mail recovery 

In article <macdev-2D60E0.14523712052004 DeleteThis @senator-bedfellow.mit.edu>,
macdev DeleteThis @meeroh.org says...
 > In article <MPG.1b0be2356142bdba9897a9@mayonews>, Al <spohn DeleteThis @nospam.bigfoot.com>
 > wrote:
 >
  > > In article <c7rnr3$t90$2@news.apple.com>, peter_ammon DeleteThis @rocketmail.com says...
   > > > Al wrote:
   > > >
   > > > > My wife's IBook running Jaguar has long been in need of a clean install
   > > > > due to a variety of problems. One of the more recent manifestations of
   > > > > problems is her mail application (normal client that comes with Jaguar)
   > > > > quits after spinning for about 5 minutes.
   > > > >
   > > > > My question - nothing about a clean install is particularly scary for me
   > > > > *except* for our ability to retain emails/mailboxes, etc. Granted,
   > > > > pulling this stuff in after a clean install could re-introduce whatever
   > > > > our problem is, but the importance of the email is such that we're
   > > > > willing to live with that risk.
   > > >
   > > > Not really a programming question, but the simplest way to save your mail
   > > > is to copy ~/Library/Mail and ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist
   > > > somewhere, reinstall, and then copy them back. No Unix necessary; you can
   > > > do it from the Finder.
  > >
  > > Thanks, that's what I was looking for. The reason I asked the question here
  > > was that I thought there was a possibility that programming would be
  > > involved.
 >
 > That's not what you are looking for. You are looking for the Archive & Install
 > option in the Mac OS X installer.
 >
 > meeroh

Yes, that's what I *need* but not necessarily what I was looking for
when I asked the question, because I didn't know any better :-) I
appreciate you pointing it out.

Thanks,
Al<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Clean OSX install with mail recovery