On 15/12/2009, at 2:04 PM, Justin Davies wrote:

> 
> Hi all, I just recently upgraded to new macbook and in migrating the content 
> across I have a folder called "var (from old mac) which has about 775 mg of 
> system looking folders. It is safe to delete this?
> 
> Many thanks in advance.....
> Best regards
> 

You don't tell just where this folder is located. Is it just sitting out at the 
top level of your hard drive? Or is it somewhere a little deeper, such as in 
your Home Folder. The fact that it is visible at all kind of indicates that it 
is no longer important, since the /var folder is normally hidden from view in 
the Finder.

Here's a hint: go to the Go menu at the top of the screen in Finder, and choose 
"Go to Folder..." (or press shift-cmd-g). Type "/var" in the field, and you 
will find you are viewing the contents of the currently-active /var folder. 
Compare the contents of this folder with the "var (from old mac)" folder you 
are concerned about.

Not also the location of the "/var" folder. It should show up as an alias at 
the top level of your hard drive, albeit with a "faded" icon, indicating that 
it is in fact a hidden folder. Change to Column View (if you're not there 
already. ). Right- (command-)click on this icon and choose "Show Original" from 
the contextual menu. You should find the the original lives inside a folder 
called "Private", which is another hidden folder. If you simply double-click 
your hard drive icon in the Finder neither of these folders will be visible.

So to summarise: you should find that you have two "var" files - one called 
"var" inside the hidden "Private" folder, and the one you have seen in the 
Finder called "var (from old mac)". If this is indeed the case, I think it's 
fairly save to delete the visible one. 

If the only visible version is the visible one, your system file structure is 
in trouble and I would suggest a clean install ASAP, although I really don't 
anticipate this will be necessary.

My apologies is this description was a little too long-winded or unnecessarily 
complicated, but it's much easier to do that describe...

--

Peter Hinchliffe        Apwin Computer Services
FileMaker Pro Solutions Developer
Perth, Western Australia       
Phone (618) 9332 6482    Mob 0403 064 948
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Mac because I prefer it -- Windows because I have to.







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