What to backup before fresh install of OS X

[Astrophys]

I upgraded from a 2008 unibody to a 2010 unibody. I used my time machine backup, but I've been having kernel attacks daily when using Safari. I've tried installing the OS again, as well as deleting Safari and all it's files and reinstalling the application but I'm still having the computer crash about once each day.

I've called apple care and have also gone into the apple store to get help. The guys at the genius bar want me to do a clean install and not do one from the time machine. So can anyone point me to any other threads or articles on what is the best method to do this? What I want to know is after I move over my personal files... what else should I grab before reformatting and doing a fresh install?

I want to have all my emails, keychain passwords, etc.. But I don't even know where to begin to grab all the stuff and and a little nervous I'm going to forget to back up a lot of stuff. Any help would be appreciated!

 

[Detrius]

The kernel panic logs themselves could be very enlightening as to what the actual cause is. In 10.6, they should be in /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports.

From just your symptoms, it sounds like you may have bad RAM. Burn this ISO to a CD and run it overnight before you go through the effort of a reinstall:

http://www.memtest.org/#downiso

 

[Astrophys]

Date/Time: 2011-01-26 18:09:59.312 -0600
OS Version: Mac OS X 10.6.6 (10J567)
Report Version: 6

Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGBUS)
Exception Codes: KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE at 0x00000000000031e4
Crashed Thread: 2

What would you do if you had bad ram?

 

[Andeavor]

Have you tried disk repair from the installation disk?

The last time I did a clean install, I grabbed all my apps (and installation files if they're on the HDD), personal documents and other files, the entire iTunes folder (you can just copy it back over and continue) and manually installed widgets.

One thing I forgot to back up was my address book. =|