How to reformat for Mac OS X?

I'm at a lost on how to reformat so I back up my MBP to an external hard drive. I'm afraid of erasing something when I go to reformat for Mac OS X. What can do to prevent erasing my files. I've tried to back up to a CDR disk but with no luck. What else can I back up to just in case, thumb drive? I have .Mac but I don't know to use the Backup feature yet. The applications I'm trying to back up is iCal, iPhoto, address book and Quickens. Since Quickens is a 3rd party software, can I restore after backing up to an external driver, or do I have to download the software then restore the info. I'm a fairly new Mac user. Thank you!

 

When you say reformat, do you mean you want to erase all your data and do a clean install? If you do not want to erase your files, just do an upgrade. I'm not really sure what you can do if you already have Tiger, maybe some of the guys here can help you out with that, since I've only done a clean install.

Why did the cdr backup fail? What program did you use to backup? Was the cdr new? What brand was it?

If you want a quick backup you can use blank dvd's, provided you have a superdrive. You can try backing up to usb drives, provided you have ones that have enough storage.

Well to backup iphoto, just copy a file called iPhoto Library that should be located in the pictures folder in your finder sidebar (if you have iPhoto 08). Do you have a .mac trial or upgraded account? If you have a payed .mac account you can download Backup 3 here and it has options to back up what you mentioned.

Also with .mac, it allows to backup address book, ical, safari bookmarks, etc. Just go to your system preferences, then .mac, input your username and password, click on the sync tab, and choose what you want backed up. When you reformat osx all you have to do is synchronize.

As for quickens, I think you would have to install it again and just restore the info. That's how most programs work.


Edit:
I should add that backup 3 backs up most of that for you to cds or dvds, but since trials are limited to only 100mb per backup, I havent bothered downloading it yet, since I only have a trial right now. I dont have an external hard drive yet, so I backed up my itunes library with the backup to disc option inside itunes (took 5 dvds!). iPhoto and documents i backed up manually with toast, and ical, address book, bookmarks, etc with isync.

 

I'm trying to reformat so that my Seagate FreeAgent Pro will back up my files.
So I guess I'm not trying to erase & do a clean install. I was using a Fujifilm All Purpose CD-R disk, I tried to back up Quickens on it and it didn't. I also have the full version of .Mac & downloaded Backup 3. I've backed up using Backup 3 via iDisk, I really don't know much else. I've set it up to back up daily at a certain time, I know it takes along time to back up. I chose the custom back up plan, which consists of iCal, address book, iPhoto & Quickens '07. I've lost my Quickens '07 file about 3 times now, it takes a long to input all of the data that I've lost. Quickens '07 is the one of the main things I want to back up. So if I where to lose my Quickens '07 file, even though I backed it up, I won't be able to restore the data after I re download the application? So I would have re enter my data manually? So it doesn't do me any good to backup that file correct? What else can I do in case I lose the data again, that I could restore it instead of having to manually input the data? Please help make sense of this, I'm confused. Thankyou!

 

Sorry I am a little confused. Your mac is fine, but you want to reformat your external hard drive so you can backup your mac files? (english isnt my first language...lol)

I thought you wanted to reformat your mac's hdd and backup your files somewhere...

 

Yes, I want to reformat my external hard drive so I can back up my Mac files. How about the questions about Quickens '07 and Backup 3? Thank you!

 

OK if you setup backup 3 to do its thing via iDisk, then you should be fine. I don't understand what you mean when you say you lost your quickens file. Do you mean you backed it up to .mac, but then tried to restore and it didn't work?

 

Sorry to interrupt, there is a good guide on formatting external hard drives here--link sourced out of Sam's sticky