Migrating user account on same computer?

Question

I thought I'd be able to find the answer to this just by searching the forum, but everything related to what I wish to do seems to be talked about in terms of one computer to another. However I wish to migrate from one account on my computer to a fresh one on the same computer, which seems like it would be simple, but I've been unable to figure it out on my own.
The background is this: my G5 being four years old, my main user account that I have been using all this time has become a bit "sluggish." I created a new account and there is a marked difference between their responsiveness, both system-wide and on-line, so instead of troubleshooting what is bogging down the old account I thought I would just migrate over to the new one. Also, I was running the old account as admin, which I understand is not advisable, so I figured I would keep the old account for admin purposes while performing my day-to-day activities in the new account.
I was surprised to find that there is no way for me to easily access all my files on my old account from my new account (read and write) simply by changing a global permission. This would have been the "ideal" way for me to make this adjustment, as it really wouldn't matter which of these two accounts I logged in from, everything would be the same. Am I missing something here?
Barring a solution to that, I don't necessarily mind "starting fresh" and basically treating the accounts as separate computers. Address Book and iCal should be easy enough to export from the old account and import into the new account. Mail on my old account has grown huge (4GB) so I was planning to archive anyway with 3rd party software and start from scratch. The files I'm currently working on I will copy over, and then I guess anything prior that I need to refer to in the future I will just have to log in to the old account and copy over piecemeal. (Is there another way, other than simply copying 100% of my files from the get-go?)
If I'm understanding all of the above correctly, my only concerns are:
1) Applications. When I launch 3rd party apps that require registration from the new account, some seem to be having some issues. Would copying the "Application Support" folder from my old account solve this, or will I only be able to use these apps from one account on my computer at a time?
2) iTunes, specifically as regards my iPhone. Will I need to log into my old account each time I wish to sync with my iPhone? Is there any way that by instead syncing with the new account that I can mess things up and cause my phone or my apps to be de-authorized?
Many thanks in advance for any guidance you can give here. I hope I am not going about all this backwards and should rather just be trying to "clean up" the old account rather than make a new one to "mimic" it?
Thank you,
Josh

Answer 1

I recommend making a full backup of your system before trying this.
read the above post of mine for finding out the short user name of your second account and group name of your first account.
Macintosh-HD -> Applications -> Utilities -> Net Info Manager
You can use the net info manager to add a user to the group. although I think the single command is easier to use. You can copy the first portion into terminal and type in the variable and information.
Here is the Net Info Manager way:
in the middle column click on groups. this will bring out the list of groups. Scroll down to your group from your first userid and click on at.
Click on the lot on the lower left-hand corner of the screen. Fill in your administrator password.
Click on the down triangle for the list of groups.
Click on edit: add
fill in your group name.
Mac OS X uses Unix permissions.
You will need to use BatChmod to change the permissions. Mac OS X doesn't let you change the permission to let others look in directories -- this is called the execution permission. The picture directory doesn't let others look at its files. You need to change this. You need to set the read-only and the execution permissions. And change it on group and other/everyone.
!http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3265/3180927160_fabd018171.jpg?v=0!
Sometimes things are not updated as you would expect. I noticed that the Red minus bar on a folder doesn't go way when I changed the permissions. I had to log off the user. You may want to be boot after changing the execution permission. It shouldn't be necessary.
"BatChmod is a Cocoa utility for manipulating file and folder privileges in Mac OS X. It allows the manipulation of ownership as well as the privileges associated to the Owner, Group or others."
http://www.macchampion.com/arbysoft/Welcome.html
debate
You can use the get info command to find out file permissions and make the changes.
Click on the file of interest. Press command i (⌘-i)
Each file has an owning user and a group of users that are allowed to access the file. Also, there is a another access for all users. The owning user is the UID field. The group of users is the GID.
You could add yourself to your first Group. This would allow you to look at any file your wife owns.
The NetInfo Manager application allows you to make this change.
Macintosh-HD -> Applications -> Utilities -> NetInfo Manager
In the middle column is the function. Pick users in the middle column then select the user of interest in the right column. Find out what group you and your wife are in.
Now go back to the middle column and pick the Group. Now pick your wife's group. Now add your group to your wife's group. To add an item to a group, you need to look up and find the pulldown called directory > insert value.
File system permissions
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filesystempermissions
Robert