Drive replacement data user question(s)

[Motorheader]

I replaced my daughters drive in her Macbook last fall. The move went without any issue and she had an additional 100GB after the upgrade.

Now it appears the drive is dying. It won't boot to get to the login - it gets to the blue screen and mouse cursor in the upper left, then circular spinning countdown in the center, then repeat, then hang at the blue screen. I can hear the drive making a winding type of noise.

Here's what I've done so far:

- I've tried booting off the Leopard disk and verified disk - it passed.
- I also repaired permissions - it repaired about 2 dozen and passed as well.
- I took the drive out and ran Spinrite 6 on it - it got to about 53% and it started making the noise like it was stuck at the blue screen at Leopard bootup. It ran for 3 hours and the drive eventually passed with nothing fixed and no errors found.
- I'm afraid to try an archive and install since I think the drive is failing

So here is what I'm going to do.

- Purchase replacement drive and do a clean Leopard install
- Put the existing failing drive in my USB powered enclosure

I don't have a time machine backup to work from.

Now my question is where is my daughters user data and system files? She is the only user on the Macbook. Once I find them and bring them over - barring any other issues - where do I put them on the new drive/Leopard install and make her desktop, user data, music, phots, and apps the same again? Is it as simple as copying over a user folder?

I've done alot of homework prior to asking for help.

Any suggestions are more than welcome.

Thanks in advance.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

Can you make an image of the drive so you can do a transfer when you get t he new hard drive setup?

 

[ViRGE]

All user data is stored in /Users, with a folder for each specific user. If you grab that directory, you will get all of her user data. It will not include any system files or Applications. If you need to capture Applications too, you're probably better off trying to copy the entire drive, which may be a bit tricky since if you don't have another Mac and a way to hook up both the old and new drives, the usual standby of Carbon Copy Cloner won't be an option.

 

[Motorheader]

Thanks for the input. Here's where I'm at right now:

- I installed the new drive, installed Leopard and ran all updates available.
- Put the failing drive in the external USB enclosure
- Started up Migration Assistant
- Picked choice #2 - import from time machine or another drive (something like that)
- It also let me import network settings and something else I can't remember.

It found the only user account and has been running for a while - roughly 2 hours. It's at about 9% left - and it's at the area of the drive that starts the repetitious windup.

I'm going to continue to let it run as long as it will allow - at least for the moment.

Apparently there have been changes/updates to Migration Assistant that doesn't necessitate a firewire connection. I feel fortunate at the moment.

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: Motorheader
Thanks for the input. Here's where I'm at right now:

- I installed the new drive, installed Leopard and ran all updates available.
- Put the failing drive in the external USB enclosure
- Started up Migration Assistant
- Picked choice #2 - import from time machine or another drive (something like that)
- It also let me import network settings and something else I can't remember.

It found the only user account and has been running for a while - roughly 2 hours. It's at about 9% left - and it's at the area of the drive that starts the repetitious windup.

I'm going to continue to let it run as long as it will allow - at least for the moment.

Apparently there have been changes/updates to Migration Assistant that doesn't necessitate a firewire connection. I feel fortunate at the moment.

When the Intel Macs debuted, they brought with them the ability to boot off USB, and for migration assistant to work over USB.

 

[Motorheader]

Well the spot in the drive was so bad that the Migration Assistant couldn't get past it. I got to 30 seconds to go and then it failed completely.

The log that is generated had multiple errors in files that were mostly iTunes and Firefox related.

What I ended up doing was leaving the drive attached via USB and copying everything over to there former respective places. I opened up 2 windows in finder and did a directory comparison. It was nice to find that upon reinstalling certain programs that things like favorites, e-mails, address books, and buddy lists were there without having to "import". So much easier than in Windows. There were only a few files that wouldn't copy and nothing important was lost.

Arctic White WD Passport for Time Machine ordered today.

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: Motorheader
Well the spot in the drive was so bad that the Migration Assistant couldn't get past it. I got to 30 seconds to go and then it failed completely.

The log that is generated had multiple errors in files that were mostly iTunes and Firefox related.

What I ended up doing was leaving the drive attached via USB and copying everything over to there former respective places. I opened up 2 windows in finder and did a directory comparison. It was nice to find that upon reinstalling certain programs that things like favorites, e-mails, address books, and buddy lists were there without having to "import". So much easier than in Windows. There were only a few files that wouldn't copy and nothing important was lost.

Arctic White WD Passport for Time Machine ordered today.

All the things like settings/preferences/application data is almost always stored in the Library, be it the User's or the System's. If you want to save as much a person's stuff as possible, and cannot do a full clone, then Documents, Pictures, Music, Movies, and Libraries are what you want to save.