Saving Mail and Other Program Data

[Al Poulin]

Charles Martin <chasm at mac.com> wrote:

>> From: Anne Keller-Smith <earthpigz at earthlink.net>
>> 
>> Thanks for having this list.
>> 
>> Where are data files for OSX Mail, so I can back them up?
>> 
>> Where might be the user files for my Palm data?
>> 
>> Generally, where's this stuff? Bookmarks, etc.
>> 
>> Many thanks in advance for any enlightenment.
> 
> <warning: rant ahead>

Excellent rant!  Thank you Charles.  It helped tip my thinking toward what
Mike, Alex, Randy, and Kirk were saying.
> 
> This question, along with the earlier one about partitioning a OS X
> hard drive to isolate the swap space, leaves me wondering: why do
> people insist on complicating the OS X experience?

I am the author of "the earlier one about partitioning."  As you could see
in my follow up on the great answers by Mike, Alex, Randy, and Kirk, I've
given up that idea.  I had picked it up on a genealogy e-list from a
Mac/UNIX geek who had a particular reason to bring it up.  Now, to answer
your question, which does not seem entirely rhetorical.

Anne and I are late-comers to OS X.  This is on purpose.  We both want
stability in our systems.  We are very comfortable with OS 9.  Our
familiarity with the OS 9 model affects our approach to OS X.  My wife and I
are users at home, retired.  Anne runs a business with her machines.  As I
recall from other e-lists, she sat on her copy of Jaguar for a while before
installing it.  I bought Panther last December.  It gets installed next
month while my wife is away for a few days.

In my original swap space e-mail, I only hinted at needing to keep running
OS 9, hence the focus on partitions to begin with.  I've used them for years
and I've watched the partition Yes/No arguments in the older e-lists for
years, so I really do not want to keep burning those fires.

As for complicating the OS X experience.  That is the last thing I want to
do.  (Rant on -- I keep wondering why must there be a Terminal Application?
Command Language?  It reminds me of MS-DOS which I avoided like the plague.
Just rhetorical, no need to answer. Rant off.)
> 
> Leaving aside for the moment the handful of UNIX geeks and other
> hobbyists who just LIKE to tinker, I see a repeating pattern of people
> (who, it should be noted, are posting to a "Newbies" list) determined
> to make the OS X experience far more elaborate, complicated and
> maintenance-oriented than it needs to be for 98% of users. I can only
> imagine that these are Windows folks who have converted and find
> themselves flummoxed by OS X's ease of use and figure they must be
> missing something, because their user experience just isn't painful and
> confusing enough compared to what they're used to.

Well, maybe a lot of those questions come from folks who are still thinking
in the OS 9 model.

> each user need only concern themselves with ONE folder that contains
> ALL their created data.
> 
Does that ONE folder contain the users e-mail?

> By far, the easiest and most trouble-free way to make backups of
> your data is to use a separate (preferably external) hard drive and a
> cloning program such as Carbon Copy Cloner. Your backup is then
> complete and bootable and you can resume working almost seamlessly in
> the event of a main HD problem.

In OS X, can CCC make backups only of recently changed data?  Like the
business of the day instead of running the entire User Folder?  If not, what
about Retrospect Deluxe or Retrospect?  Another utility?

> Periodically run a maintenance program such as OnyX (which does
> everything pretty much automatically),

Are you talking about that 3:15 to 5:30 AM stuff?  Cron jobs?  I just
reviewed David Pogue's 1/3 page discussion on that.  He does not mention 3rd
party utilities.

Many thanks,

-- 
Al Poulin
Anger, hate, and revenge are for the devil, forgiveness is for God,
proactive self-defense is for the rest of us.