...but there were obstacles at every point. The Mac "Migration Assistant" in particular failed, failed, failed whenever it was invoked. Nevertheless, I appear to have transported by various means all the bits I desired to park themselves on the newer machine. I think that had I been a newbie I might not have noticed the ordeal (because I wouldn't have asked as much), and as a user with mightier OS X/UNIX chops I would have passed over the obstacles without seeing them.

I must not let this occasion go by without paying tribute to my supplemental HD "Wittgenstein," from vendor "SmartDisk," an 80 GB external jobbie to which my files and downloads have been saved by default since early 2003. I've had a couple of HDs go south on me during the past eight years, but Wittgenstein, like the fabled rabbit (or duck) keeps going and going, waddling or hopping toward the outer limits of its MTBF. I'm duly grateful.

"Trust, but verify": Yes, the critical data has been transcribed to fresher media.

cordially,