DS_store files after copying files

1) Yes you can delete the visible .DS store files

THere are various ways of automating this process , too, by the way. See http://www.redroomdevelopment.com/products/dsstorecleaner/ or http://www.macromedia.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/index.cfm?id=tn_16831 for a couple of options. Cocktail is also able to deal with this issue, from memory.

2) Whether its wise to simply copy your old home library or not depends to some extent on why you chose to reformat and re-install. My general advicen a situation where you have reformatted to solve a problem, is DON'T. Instead keep a copy of it for a while , so that any necessary items can be replaced individually.

Simply copying it back holus bolus may well reintroduce whatever problems you had to start with.


Cheers

Rod

You can copy your old documents into your new home including the library provided that your back up kept the ownership and permissions intact and that the user in the new system has the exact same name that was in the old system.
If you have multiple users it is optimal to create them in the exact same order as they were created on the old system.
Finally the fact that you can see the DS_store files is a bit disturbing as those files should be invisible.
Did you back your home folder up to a flash drive or some other disk that is not in the usual mac os format?
If that is the case you need to double check to see if your permissions have been kept sacred during the move.
You can delete the visible DS_Store files with no worries.

From the data rescue site
Recovers all types of files, including their data, icons, dates, and folder hierarchy.

That sounds reasonably promising that the files will retain the correct permssions and ownership after replacement - you could write to the software vendor to be sure. About the only thing to be on the lookout for with "rescued" files is that they are sometimes not fully functional. For the most part unusable "rescued" files have a size of 0 kb.

go for it. Even if a file or two in the library folder is screwed up it means you have lost some minor pieces of data. If you get a message to enter an activation code for an app - it would mean that the replacement did not go all that smoothly.