[rdlsmith]

It didn't ask for a password. Yet, when I logged out and back in as a Guest account, I couldn't access the files under my real user's Document directory.

That's as it should be.

It also put the computer into sleep mode this time.

Shouldn't it have asked for a password? Did it store the password somehow?

If the HD should crash, and I have to reinstall from the DVDs (which I shouldn't have to do as I have a bootable partition on an external HD) how would I access those files under the Documents directory?

Let me make sure my question is clear, say the internal HD fails, I reinstall OS X from the DVDs that shipped with my computer. I create a new user account with the same name as I was using before, mount the external firewire drive. How do I access my files in order to do a restore?

Yikes, I don't like either answer. One is, if I create with the same name I can access my files. That would mean any hacker could borrow the drive and do the same so I'm sure that won't work.

The other answer is, it's not really the same account so there's no way to get to the files. What good is that? Suppose the external boot partition didn't work for whatever reason?

I want a way to tie the backup to a password. Maybe the entire sparse image. Is there a way to do that?