Backup Home folder to clean install Leopard? (1 Viewer)

With Leopard coming soon I figured I'd do a clean install (erase and install) if/when I get Leopard. Everything I need/want to backup is in my home folder (user account, not my root acount). Since I don't collect music/video in iTunes or any other way and don't make/edit video's or pictures my home folder is only a little over 2GB in size. What is the best/simplest way to backup my home folder to both an external firewire drive and a dvd-r/w?

Also just out of curiosity after a clean install can that home folder be just copied back into the "Users" folder and detected with a reboot? Obviously 3rd party app .plists will be dealt with manually.

I'm sure there will be no need to erase and reinstall everything. Probably a waste of time, I plan just to upgrade.

CJ

Yes it works. I'd compare Leopard's folder first to see what's new.

Another approach is a clean rebuild. Install the apps, and then copy only the application support & preference files.

The clean rebuild was kinda my plan. Install everything new even 3rd party apps and just manually copy over my Opera, Firefox and Mail.app (e-mail folders) support and preference files along with everything in my "Download" folder. Just figured I'd backup the whole home folder just incase.

Backing up goes without saying....Yes?

Heh, obviously.

Don't forget it.

Apple
just
works.

LOL, may be but I come from 18 years of Windows. I'm not programmed to think that way.

as have we all.

I too plan a clean install vs. upgrade (thinking that since I use up nearly 80GB of my 100GB HD, it would help to defrag the drive). My longtime Mac friends are like "whatever, we're just going to perform an OS upgrade our Macs." The long-time Windows user in me is horrified that someone would even try using an upgrade feature of any OS, but the 1-year Mac user in me is saying, "they're probably right, just save a lot of time and hassle and upgrade."

I think I'm still going to do a clean install. I do the type of constant small to medium file downloading and erasing which is a nightmare on HD fragmentation, even for HFS+. Although I will readily admit that despite this, and using 80% of my HD, the MBP still runs as fast (or nearly) as the day I unboxed it.

Eh, it's probably pointless to do a clean install, but I just can't shake 12 years of Windows experience...

As a long time Windows user, I'm looking forward to doing an upgrade install. That's what Windows taught me: Doing a fresh install simply takes too much time. A clean install, prepped with a full backup, checking I've got all necessary install media and registration keys, and followed by reinstalling everything and recreating all of my user settings, tweaks, and shortcuts takes an entire weekend. And there are little things that take weeks to finally get back to normal. Actually, now with BootCamp and Parallels, it will take two weekends! I'll have to reinstall Windows XP.

Forget it.

Give me a good upgrade installer, and I'll be happy!

Generally speaking, Apple's upgrades just work. Indeed, even getting a new computer and migrating everything over is a snap (just connect the old one to the new one when you first turn it on and go through the 2 step instructions).

If you do want to do a "clean" install, don't do it the old Windows way - namely, a true wipe it out and reinstall everything way. Do it the Mac Way (tm). Select "archive and install" as your installation option. That will archive your old OS folder, and install the new OS in a new folder. All your applications and documents are left just fine. What would not still work are the little OS hacks you may have installed to do various stupid little things that probably are the source of the problem in the first place and it would have been easier to just undo those hacks (I speak from experience).