Installing 10.4.11 on External Hard Drive Needs to be Firewire Bootable

Question

I have a PB G4 1.67 ghz. 2 Gigs of Ram 100 Gig HD The main hard drive failed, the first hard drive to fail on me in 24 years. In the worst place at the worst time away from all my support, tools and software. It goes to Apple Care.
The Drive was partitioned into 3 sectors #1 for the system and the software that installs with 10.4. #2 for other applications and # 3 for mostly storing my work.
#1 died and I tried all the goodies Disk Warrior, which told me it was bad and did manage to save some things where to put them where I am not sure, but there in the trash, not emptied yet on my
iBook G4 1.1Ghz. I also tried Data Rescue, both seem to be good programs but need to be installed before the crash. So am pretty new software burned out. But whatever works the best.
I will run the new external Hitachai HD off a G4 iBook 1.1Ghz with
I know how to format from Disk Utility, and install a new copy of 10.4.11.
I did keep pretty good backups of the Library so all my mailboxes, emails, address book, Keychain and all the essentials are there. Oh thank you..for those who say Back Up. I am going to be the back up Guru, after I get this one up and back into the world.
Now I used a simple drag and drop system to a separate hard drive, that I use just to back up these important files. Not flashy, but oh my gosh they are there. But they are on a seperate Hard Drive. Not the new one. No operating system on the back up hard drive and is only 50 Gigs. Only geez..
My question, what is the best way to get the essential files from Library on the Back Up Hard Drive on to the new fresh install of 10.4.11. On my new external 120 Gig Hitachi which is in a small little metal Firewire 400 and 800 case with the Oxford 922 chip.
I could simply drag and drop these files, a lot of manual labor, possible massive openings, but I want the best system and it seems there is software that is made to do not want this. But I am really burned out and do not want to learn another new piece of software that works pretty good for some and others like this.
I am open to ideas and do not want to create file folders within file folders or files within files, but it seems if I just drag and copy from the working Back Up files to the same empty folders , i.e. mail of the new Hard Drive applications , things should be OK ?? Ideas, don't do this...
I do have all my mailboxes, all 135 of them, plus the 10’s of thousands of messages that go with them and the info that goes into each box. The mail would probably be the most worrisom as it is rather big. Working on storage for that.
I have A New 120 Gigs HD, I had a 50 Gig partition before, and I was pushing that limit, mainly because of iPhoto and iTunes I was thinking 90 gig 20 gig and a small 9 gig Gig just for a small second install of a clean OS 10.4.11 just in case . This will ultimately be a storage drive as I am going to get a 160 Gig for the internal disk. But that is a repair trip away and I need to get this HD up and running be bootable
Thank You for any help ideas or maps. I have been fighting this for 2 days, so hope it makes sense, along with a whole other slew of of limited tools and books serial numbers.
Geoffrey

Answer 1

Ok my thinking on this has changed. To much time and too much trouble. Lets Just set up a new account set up the filters and boxes and get on with life.
I have the messages I restored, I will get more when there recovered off the hard disk that crashed is restored, so a long term solution is where I should be headed now.
Although I do not know what this means for getting my address book back and Keychain which is also very important and sort of goes along the line of mail importing.
So what is the recommendation for storing and being able to access in a similar manner large volumes of mail say 60,000 among 100 folders and then will grow.
I average 300 per day, much of it I want to save. I see I can save the messages I now have to any any folder I want, and if I save it in Rich Text then even a simple program like Text edit can open the message, read it and keep the proper format.
However, I by going to folders, I lose the strong search capability, that is so wonderful and strong in Mail and the threaded capability of messages that is also so wonderful when researching these letters to get the information I keep them for. Suggestions.? I have Office 08 but only use it when I have too. I have Apple works but it's getting dated. I am open to new programs. I prefer tested ones that last. There is some good shareware and I took a look at Mail Steward and have it. But shareware can come and go and for something as important as mail. I need proven product.
This storage of mail will keep my mail box size down, some had as much a 10 thousand letters. The nice thing about mail was you could search all that information so well. I know there are a fair multitude of shareware programs, but would like to keep it simple in a very stable program with the robustness of mail or even greater, but not a huge learning curve. Yes I want everything.
This is the real answer, backup is easy, but keep those mail files to where I can do a multitude of things with them and be safe. I think I read somewhere that Mail does not like more then a 1000 messages per Mailbox. That is small for my needs.
So suggestions from here, or start a new thread. Or. Plus should we go on to the keychain which is so vital. Plus address book. ??? Hopefully that will be easier.
Thanks for the input
Geoff