I thinks thats the (almost) only way Time Machine is really usefull. The main reason for data loss (and the need for a backup) in my case until now was hard drive failure.

So I need a harddrive from which I can boot and continue working. Actually ... I use super duper, which safes you from the hassle of reinstalling everything.

>>Actually ... I use super duper, which safes you from the hassle of reinstalling everything.

I doubt that since SuperDuper is not (yet) compatible with Leopard. If you are able to make a bootable backup with SuperDuper and OS 10.5.1, please pass your method on to the developer, Dave Nanian. He's been feverishly working on a compatible SuperDuper since the Leopard release date.

Hi, sorry, that wasn't clear:

I am still on Tiger, and one of the reasons is that SuperDuper doesn't work on Leopard + I am a bit paranoid about backups after some bad experience.

For this reason the Hint about making the TM drive bootable was a very good one.

However, I might stay on Tiger, because I like the fuzzlessness and ease of use of SuperDuper. Its good to know, that a lot can happen, and you just have to plug in (or screw in) your external harddrive

I've been using SuperDuper! for about a year now, doing a nightly, bootable clone of my main internal drive to another internal drive. I also have my machine wake up every morning at 3am, let the UNIX routines do their thing, then via an Applescript, backup my critical files to one of a series of 14 DVDs (2 week rotation) so that I've got a 2 week span to go back to, if needed.

Works for me.

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"When you're finished learning, you're finished."