iMac Backup / Restore (SuperDuper?) questions...

[Bod]

Right, I still have a bit of the old windows mentality in me, and I'd like to reformat my mac, start again.
One, I want that fresh feeling of a brand new, clean install again.
Two, I'm having problems with general sluggishness. Nothing to hinder performance per se, but its a tiny slowdown and a general niggle.
Three, I'm having problems with Firefox CPU spiking every few seconds. I've tried everything available to try and cure it and still no joy. New profiles, disabling addons, themes, extensions etc. I've rolled back to versions I had when I *know* it didn't happen, and still no joy. Even using the new Shiroteko it does the same.

So it's time for a reformat.

However, I have a couple of problems.
I used to have a problem with my external monitor flickering. Unknown fault. Downloading and using 'SwitchresX' may have cured it, I'm not sure (I honestly can't remember when it stopped flickering).

So, I'd like to backup my Mac HD onto a folder or file on another HD (I have a couple with some free space).
Then wipe and reinstall the Mac HD, and start afresh.
However, if I stumble upon problems, or some app prefs that I need, I'd like to be able to access the backup to pinch the files out.
Can I do this with SuperDuper?
I can't physically 'clone' the drive bit for bit (IE wipe the destination drive) unless I make a separate partition on the spare drive, which I don't really want to do.

Any thoughts chaps?

Thanks

 

[Spyhop]

I don't think that's purely a Windows mentality, just about any day to day OS will build up cruft, and you lose track of all the stuff that's been on and off the system (I'm definitely going to do a clean break when Snow Leopard comes out)

I know that SuperDuper will make you a disk image (single .dmg file) that you can later mount in Finder and have a root around in. The only thing to watch out for is to ensure that the destination partition that you create the .dmg on can support the large single file size (e.g. FAT32 won't allow greater than 4GiB)

 

[Bod]

It's OK it's on a Mac OS (Journaled) HD.
It's the ability to root around in the image I was worried about, cheers!

 

[Bod]

Right, another possible problem that I would like clarified.

iTunes and all my stuff. I can restore from the image, that's no problem.
But what about Time Machine? If I reformat, obviously Time Machine will see it as a new machine and make fresh backups etc? How do I re-integrate time machine into the new installation?

Is there anything else I should be thinking of?

 

[Feek]

I was under the impression that Time Machine checks system name and (according to the Mac Geek Gab guys) MAC address. If they're consistant then it will just carry on with the same backup regime

 

[Bod]

That's what I read too Feek (including the lengthy workaround of changing Mac Addresses to get it working again on another machine etc).

To be honest, the more I think about it, the more I don't actually need all the backups...just the most recent as a failsafe, so it's not that important to continue anyway.

I think I've covered all bases for the reformat, and shall get onto it this weekend!