Backing up Mac OS X files to Windows?

[realityisterror]

I'm considering reinstalling OS X on my PowerBook, just as a maintenance/clean up procedure.

However, the only way I could back up all of my files is over Ethernet to a Windows MCE box. I would prefer to just copy all my applications and my Library folders over as well, so that I make sure not to lose anything important (registration files, preferences, applications I bought online)...

I know that just copying some files can cause them to not work right, and you need to use special utilities to ensure resource forks and whatnot don't go awry. But I think that's more for system files and I'm not sure if it applies to Windows.

So am I ok to just copy everything over without worry?

reality

 

[Nermal]

Zip everything and it should retain all the resource forks etc.

 

[realityisterror]

The only problem is that it's going to be a huuge .zip
But if I divide it up into chunks, I think I have enough spare disk space...

Maybe I'll do that, that way when I transfer it over the network, it'll be one big file and transfer faster than thousands of small ones. And I won't be prompted to skip stuff over 32 characters long


Thanks for the idea

Edit: any problems with .tar?

 

[gekko513]

When I use tar -czf to back up stuff on Linux I don't get exactly the same rights and settings when I untar if I remember correctly, so I think the ctrl-click -> zip in Finder is probably safer.

 

[realityisterror]

That was my plan, but it's not letting my zip through Finder because of permissions. It requires a sudo.
I was going to do it from the command line, but I figured just tar'ing would be quicker as it has no compression.

I'm going to test it first and make sure that the files are usable.

 

[discoforce]

Wouldn't copying all preferences and such defeat some of the benefits of reinstalling the OS?

I'm not basing this on anything but my gut, but to me, a clean install would involve backing up documents (word, photos, movies, etc.) and reinstalling the OS then the apps. It would take a lot longer, but things would be "cleaner", no?

 

[realityisterror]

Yeah, that's the plan.

However, I've done this before and I've lost the registration files for apps I bought online, or I lost my Adium configuration.

The backup is really a "just in case I realize I forgot something".