Specifically, I’m having a problem where I seem to periodically lose a lot of my preferences, so on the next start-up all my Finder settings are back to scratch. It makes me nervous about the system in general, and I want to create a back-up disc that I can restore from if I have more system problems.
Also, I had to reinstall the system software on a different, larger partition a couple of weeks back. Luckily I had all of my preferences on the old partition, but it was still a couple of hours’ work tracking down all of the little files in all the different libraries and nooks and crannies.
So basically, I want to create a disc that I can restore the system to it’s pre-meltdown state, without having to go through either reinstalling the system software, or copying preferences into a hundred different locations. How can I do that?
First, the preferences issue: Your preference file may be corrupted. Try deleting your existing Finder preference file (Go in your “Home” directory, then look in “Library/Preferences”), then log out/log in again and see if the problem goes away. A lot of the problems I’ve seen with MacOS X can be fixed by simply trashing the program’s preference file and letting it create a new one.
If this doesn’t fix the problem, try creating a new user account, and see if the problem persists. If not, that suggests it’s your current account that’s wonky, not the computer.
Generally speaking, almost all of the preference you use in MacOS X will be in the “Library/Preferences” folder. If you backup/restore that, that should restore all your preferences in one shot. Or backup/restore your “Library” folder, if you want to be more inclusive.
I back up my system every month simply by connecting an external hard drive, then dragging all my folders to it. I get prompted for my administrator password several times, but otherwise it’s a hassle-free process. If you do have to restore the entire OS, IMO it’s easier and better to just reinstall it from the MacOS X CDs, and then copying back your personal files from the backup.
I think rjung gave the best approach to address your particular concern. However, if for whatever reason you do want to backup an entire volume, I recommend Carbon Copy Cloner.
You might also want to investigate the asr command-line tool. I haven’t used this myself, but I’ve seen other recommend it.