Backup Tips + Troubleshooting Random Shutdowns?

[FlyinggPenguin]

This past week, my 2006 MacBook has been randomly shutting down. At first, it wouldn't even start up, but now it will periodically turn off while I am in the middle of something important. Before I take it to the Geniuses, I am going to do a clean install of Snow Leopard to see if that solves the problem. Any tips for preserving iLife, my files, and the iWork suite so I can move them back to my MacBook when the reinstall is done?

Thanks.

 

[msjones]

If you have an external drive I recommend time machine. You can back up your entire system and then restore after your clean installation. That includes apps and files.

You could also use something like Carbon Copy Cloner to make a full image of your disk.

Failing that all you can do is back up your files to another location or disk and re-install your applications after the clean install.