Mac Users- please tell me about backing up, and whether I really need to do it!

[tissy]

OK I have a MacBook with Tiger installed

Have bought Leopard, and am dithering about installing it.

My db says I should back up all my files and do a clean install, but could just do an upgrade and they should be OK. I have a few documents, a couple of Powerpoint presentations and a few albums' worth of I tunes,a couple of hundred photos oh, and all my emails, of course.

I have some CDs, but they're not big enough. No writable dvds in the house. I do have a couple of 2GB memory sticks.

Do I need to back up everything, or should I just install and keep fingers crossed? Do I really need to buy a portable hard drive, or could I get away with DVDs (don't know how much data they hold . I couldn't work out if I could put the music onto the memory sticks last night, but it's all on my iPod...so if I did a clean install could I put the music back from there?

Any one know the answer?

bump?

yes back up before you install
and yes clean installs are recommended (I upgraded, suffered for a while, then blitzed and clean installed).
DVDs are 4.7Gbs...
..portable hard drive would be better - especially as leopard has the great Timemachine..

Yes, always back up... Time Machine is awesome so I'm another who recommends getting a portable hard drive... then once Leopard is installed it'll do auto backups for you

Yes, do back up first. That said, I have upgraded 4 Macs to Leopard with no problems at all (my MILs and my two).

You're not supposed to be able to copy music back from an iPod to a Mac any more, but there is shareware out there that will do it for you. Also, if you have space on your iPod you could put it into disk mode and use that to back up some photos and stuff?

Timemachine looks great. Is anyone else going to get the new TimeCapsule - hard drive, wireless router and print server all in one? We're moving so need new router anyway - very tempted!

We'll probably get TimeCapsule - mainly because dh uses a MacBook Pro and he always forgets to attach an external harddrive - this way it'll back up whenever he's at home.

I was going to wait for Time Capsule, but had major router problems a few weeks ago and couldn't wait any longer! I now have an Airport Extreme, which is great and simple, but I didn't realise I needed an ADSL modem as well, so couldn't figure it out for a while! Now have an ADSL Nation X-Modem which is tiny, whizzy and VERY simple to install, I'll get a portable hard drive as well, then (though if I'd been able to wait, the Time Capsule would have been cheaper than Airport Extreme plus hard drive grr.).

Thanks for the advice