Iphone: new computer, dated backup

Question

Hi everyone,
I just had my old macbook stolen and had to buy a new macbook pro. I've gone through a lot of the discussions regarding how to move one's iphone to the new computer, but still have some questions. Clearly, it is ideal to use migration assistant to transfer all the contents from one's old computer to one's new computer, but since mine was stolen, this is not much of an option for me. I do nonetheless at least have some stuff backed up on my remaining on a small backup drive, but it is fairly incomplete and it is not very current (about three or four months old). I did manage to backup my iTunes folder (the one stored in my Music folder) by simply dragging it to my backup drive, and I have managed to transfer most of my iTunes library music and apps, etc. from my back-up drive over to the new computer by doing the same. Likewise, I have gotten all the pictures and video off my phone and onto the computer, so these are not an issue, but I am concerned about preserving the rest of the content that is still on my iphone (I have still not synced it with the new computer or made the new computer it's home): namely, 1) my Contacts, 2) my Calenders, 3) my Safari bookmarks, cookies, history, and currently open pages, 4) my Map bookmarks, recent searches, and the current location displayed in Maps, 5) my Notes, 6) My application settings, preferences, and data, and 7) my SMS messages, Mail, YouTube bookmarks, Contact Favorites, Network settings (saved wifi spots, VPN settings, network preferences).
My first question then is this: I know that iTunes backs up my iPhone whenever I sync up. Might I have a backup (albeit, one that is a bit dated) somewhere in my iTunes folder, or is that backup stored elsewhere? Please let me know if I might have access to any iphone backups if (so far as this issue is concerned) I only backed up my iTunes folder, and if so, how I might go about accessing that and possibly restoring that info to my phone.
Second, however, even supposing I had an old iphone backup, I'm not even sure I'd want to sync to it, since I have a lot of important information on my phone that is more recent than what that old backup contains. I'm worried, in other words, about erasing all the content on my phone that i have added since the last backed-up back up (three or four months of new Contacts, Safari Bookmarks, Map bookmarks, and a lot of Notes). If my back-up of iTunes contains a previous iphone back-up, in other words, it would be nice to access it, but since it is probably about three months old, I would want to be careful about syncing to it, since I imagine it could erase the last three months of content which have been added to my phone since that back-up. Is this correct? If syncing to that backup meant that I would lose the last three months of info, that raises the question of whether or not I would even want to use it and whether or not I would instead want to simply act as if it did not exist (choosing, instead, to at least get my current contacts and calenders to sync with the computer and to make note of everything else I might lose and re-entering it by hand). So, 1) do I need to be careful about an unintended sync with an old and incomplete back-up that might be hiding in my somewhere in my itunes folder, and if so, 2) where is it, how does it work, and a) can I use that incomplete back-up, if it even exists, to get back some of my info without erasing the more recent stuff that now resides only on my phone, or b) do I need to erase it in order to prevent the phone from accidentally syncing to it when i first sync it up with with everything else in my iTunes folder, and if so, how do I do this?
This then leads me to my next set of questions. For the sake of making clear what all my options are, let's assume that either 1) I don't have access to any previous iphone backup or 2) that, if I do, I cannot use it without erasing all the more recent info added to my phone since that backup took place. In this event, I would presumably not want to sync or restore the phone to its state when that backup took place, since I would lose a lot of info currently on the phone (correct?), and so I'd want to proceed either 1) by acting as if I had no iphone backup at all, and thus write down everything on my phone that I think I will lose upon my first sync and manually renter it later, or 2) syncing with that backup, but first manually writing down with a pen all the info on my phone since my last back-up, then second syncing to that old back-up, then finally by going back to my phone and adding in everything that I had written down by hand, right? If I proceed by the second course of action, I am assuming that I will lose any info on my phone that was added since that last backup. Alternatively, if I proceed by the first course of action, I need to think about what information I may or may not lose when I sync up to the new computer for the first time and what information will download from the phone to the computer. In this latter case, let me ask you what info you think I will lose. As I said, the music and pics are not an issue (they are already on the new computer). But my contacts and calenders on my computer are empty, as well as my Safari bookmarks (which have only those which come on the computer out of the box). I've read on the discussion boards that, even though I do not have any contacts on my computer any longer (this was one of the incomplete parts of my backup), there is no danger of losing my contacts or calenders that are on my phone when I sync, since so long as I enter at least one new contact and calender entry onto my computer it will prompt a sync that will transfer the contents of the phone to my computer just like it does whenever I add new contacts or events to my phone. Is this correct? And, is it correct even if I make the new computer its home? Next, what about my Safari bookmarks? Will they sync with the out-of-the-box bookmarks on my computer, thus erasing all my bookmarks on my phone, or can I transfer the bookmarks from the phone to the computer in some way? Is the only option to "manually" go in and add all my bookmarks to Safari on my computer before the sync? (Alternatively, if I use an old backup for my iphone, but the new computer still has the out-of-the-box bookmarks, while the phone sync to the out-of-the-box bookmarks anyway?) Finally, I also imagine that SMS, Mail, network settings, Map bookmarks, Notes, etc. will remain unaffected, but am unsure. I really don't want to lose my Notes.
I know this is a lot, and I'm playing around with several hypotheticals here, but I want to make sure that go about this in whatever way maximizes how much info on the phone gets saved. Hope this is something you all can give me some direction on.
Thanks a ton.

Answer 1

Disable autosync in itunes, connect your phone, right click on it in the device list and choose backup.
This will save data, pictures taken with the phone and settings to itunes. See what's included in this backup and where it is stored on your computer here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1766
Transfer your purchases the same way to copy all apps and bought media from the Store to your computer.
Set up at least one contact and event on your computer to be able the merge your calendars and contacts after your phone got wiped during the first sync.
The rest of the data can be restored from the backup you made.
Restoring: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1414