Migrating Mail and Address book to a new Mac

Hello All
I have been asked to help a client move emails and address book to a new mac as he didn't fancy the all or nothing approach by using migration assistant. I'm assuming the guy doesn't have a mobile me account and he has stated his old mac has FW400 and the new one has FW800 so I'm thinking I will use an external USB HD to shift the files over.
Am I right in thinking all I need to do is to copy the address book folder from home/library/application support and the mail folder from home/library/mail, then paste them in the same location on the new mac replacing the folders that are there, restart the new mac and all will be well??
If I am missing anything important any advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Jonno

Hi All
Ok, one small problem with transferring mail folder and plist from a clients old mac to his new one. Everything looked fine as I left with the correct number of mails etc showing in each of his mail folders but it turns out there is an issue. He can view mails on his .Mac account but when he looks at his POP folder all he can see is the subject line, date and who the mail was from but not any of the content of the mail.
Any ideas what has gone wrong?
Thanks
Jonno

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Folders You Can Move to Your new Mac
From the Home folder copy the contents of Documents, Movies, Music, Pictures, and Sites.
In your /Home/Library/ folder:
/Home/Library/Application Support/AddressBook (copy the whole folder)
/Home/Library/Application Support/iCal (copy the whole folder)
Also in /Home/Library/Application Support (copy whatever else you need including folders for any third-party applications)
/Home/Library/Keychains (copy the whole folder)
/Home/Library/Mail (copy the whole folder)
/Home/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist (* This is a very important file which contains all email account settings and general mail preferences.)
/Home/Library/Preferences/ copy any preferences needed for third-party applications
/Home /Library/iTunes (copy the whole folder)
/Home /Library/Safari (copy the whole folder)
If you want cookies:
/Home/Library/Cookies/Cookies.plist
/Home/Library/Application Support/WebFoundation/HTTPCookies.plist
For Entourage users:
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Also in /Home/Library/Preferences/Microsoft
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Hi,
My main machine, the iMac is in for repairs. Before it went I backed up the entire HD to an external HD.
I'm now working from an iBook. I'd like to recover past mail messages and address book info from the external HDD to the iBook.
I have imported mailboxes, as advertised, but the messages within those boxes did not import.
I have imported address book info, but they were not my addresses (or rather very few of them were) Mostly they were for Apple employees!
I didn't separately back-up or otherwise archive msgs and addresses, just copied the entire iMac HDD to the external.
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for the email issue, once you had imported the accounts did u rebuild the inbox? u will be surprised what may appear.
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masked guava wrote:
My powerpc G5 Imac just died. It was completely backed up to Mozy, and I would like to restore my Mail and Address book from that machine on the new Snow Leopard machine I bought today. Is that possible?
if you are completely backed up then yes. copy the following items from the old computer to the corresponding locations on the new computer
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Jeff,
Welcome to Discussions. I'm no expert, but try this for email:
Copy the folder 'Mail' found here: Users/your name/Library/Mail
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For Address Book:
Copy the folder 'AddressBook' found here: Users/your name/Library/Application Support/AddressBook
Again, do the same thing and drag and drop the copy to your new Mac. Same deal if you have already added new addresses to your new Mac. If you replace the new 'AddressBook' with the old, you will erase any address that were already on there.
Another way to copy both of these items is to subscribe to .Mac and do a sync (easiest method). It's $99 a year and it can really help with syncing your iCal, Safari bookmarks and Keychains (stores passwords on your Mac) also. There is a 60 trial, so you can do all this stuff for free for a limited time.
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Sorry for the delayed response to your e-mail. Thank you very much for taking the time to addressing my problem.
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Migrating Mail and Address book to a new Mac

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