Thinking of Installing Leopard

[T3hPreacher]

Hello,

I'm thinking of installing Leopard on my MacBook, and I have a couple of questions about the recommended process.

First, I'd like to back my data up to an external hard drive (even though I plan to do the archive and install). Is there a simple, easy way to do this? Would the quickest way be to make a .dmg of my whole HDD and transfer it to an external HDD? Also, is there a way to copy my data in such a way that the drive is bootable (in case something goes wrong with the install)?

Second, regarding Time Machine: what is an ideal partition size for the feature? I understand that bigger=better, but I don't want to be wasting space. I have no idea how much space a day's backup of 60GB's worth of data would take. Since I'm also new to the backup deal in general, I'd also like to know how far back one would generally like to keep their stuff. Also, what file system should I format the partition in? I'd like to get this accomplished before I install the operating system, so that everything is set for me when I begin use of Leopard.

Thanks in advance.

[GregE]

1. You can use Carbon Copy Cloner (http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html) to clone your hard drive to an EHD and it will be bootable. I did that with my new iMac just so I could go back in time if I really mess it up.

2. I'm not using TM yet but from what I understand, bigger is better. I would recommend you doing a search and finding a thread that tells you how TM works. I know your first save will equal all of the data you have and then it only saves files that have changed. It also will delete some of the saves it does by day and week but I don't want to tell you the wrong thing.

I have a 500GB internal HD and my plan was to use a 500GB EHD for TM. Even with that I'm thinking it's not big enough. I actually have a RAID-1 array and partitioned it so 500GB is for TM and the rest is for video files. I plan on getting a Drobo (http://www.drobo.com/) when they have a firewire version and using it for TM. I like the idea that I can start with smaller drives and replace them as I need my space to grow.

Hope that helps some.