Backing Up Hard Drive

[tigerfan88]

Hi there, I've just bought new RAM for my Macbook, and I'd like to back up my whole hard drive before I go tinkering around inside it.

I've been on the apple support site, but it was a little vague.

Am I correct in assuming that in order to back up the whole drive, I would be able to simply 'copy' the "Macintosh HD" icon on my desktop and put it on a Mass Storage Device/External Hard Drive for the time being?

If not, can someone please explain how? I'd hate to loose all my information and stuff. Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[motulist]

Just dragging and dropping the hard drive will not truly be a full backup. If you're using Leopard, all you have to do to backup is plug in a hard drive. The Mac will automatically ask you if you'd like to use the drive as a time machine backup drive. Click yes, then wait till it's done working. Bam, full backup.