Messages OS X - Backup My Archive / History ?
I'm about to switch my internal HDD and reinstall OS X Mavericks, but it's very important that I don't lose my Messages history.
Can anybody tell me how I can backup my entire Messages archive, so that it's ready to be transferred to my new HDD? Is there a Finder location I can browse to, so I can copy the archive to my external HDD? Or is there a tool that allows export / import of my entire chat history? Before the question arises - I do not wish to migrate my current HDD to the new one.
I've heard that Messages uses iCloud to sync messages between Macs, iPhones and iPads. Is it purely for that purpose, or does it actually store your message history on the server too? Would just signing in on my new HDD allow me to access my chat history? Apologies if this is a duplicate post. I did spend some time looking for a similar question and couldn't find anything.
Thanks in advance.
MacBook (13-inch Early 2008), OS X Mavericks (10.9.2), 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 3GB RAM