Backing up for a clean reinstall of jaguar

[Angelus]

Hey im thinking of adopting a policy where i do a clean reinstall of osx every 8-10 months. I've got all the osx and application updates on cd,now i just need to know what else i need to backup(keychain,mail?) and how?
Im going to wait until exams are over in about two weeks then il get a firelite drive to copy over the files or maybe an ipod and kill two birds with one stone(can i do that with the ipod?).

Any help would be very much appreciated and also i would like it if you could tell me of any possible complications so that i wont be caught unawares.

Thanks in advance,
Angelus

 

[mnkeybsness]

we just had a thread on this like a week ago...

home folder...but more importantly, your library folder in your home folder

 

[Angelus]

ok thanks

 

[beatle888]

if your going to go through all that trouble why not do a reformat reinstall? that way you can guarantee you'll receive the speed boost your probably looking for. also, theres a softwar application out there that allows you to make a disk image of your whole system, the OS and all applications. so all you have to do is install your os and applications once, then make a disk image of your whole system. now when ever you need to do a reinstall (or a reformat reinstall) you just have to run that one disk image and not have to worry about all your applications and such.

if you do go that route then i would still suggest burning your user folder (home folder) to cd, that way after you reinstall you can drag your user folder back to your system and your where you were before the reinstall except with a clean system.

one problem, i forgot the name of the company who makes the software, its the same people that use to make conflict catcher i believe. i think carbon copy cloner does the same thing as well.