Applications - backup & restore

[Ross]

I had a slight glitch with my boot HD in my Power Mac (a problem with a Volume which TechTool Pro may not be able to fix...). So, I'd like to backup to an external drive - but only the OS (10.4.8) with my critical applications; I'm happy to 'lose' the old trial/demo apps that are scattered around my disk...
I'd then like to re-install OSX on my Boot drive, then restore my main apps back onto it - along with data associated with each app.
Is this possible..?
Many thanks
Rgds, Ross.
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[dnanian]

Do you already have a good backup, Ross?

[Ross]

In short, no, not yet (not even downloaded Suoer Duper yet...).
My PowerMac is running TechTool and scavenging data off the drive; looks like it'll be at least a couple more hours...
Most important stuff (video capture / edits / video Masters) is all kept on external drives, but I'd really like not to have to re-install the mains apps such as Final Cut Studio suite, MS Office, etc..
My concern is the error on the main HDD which indicates a problem with the volume - hence Tech Tool booting from eDisk and trying to remedy the situation first.. I have a 500GB f/w drive on order. When it gets here I can at least attempt cloning my boot HDD onto that..
Thoughts?
Rgds, Ross.
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[dnanian]

I'd install a fresh OS to a different drive, then migrate during the first boot from the drive that's not working well... it's worth a try. I wouldn't make a backup until you have a successful copy -- you're going to have trouble copying every file you need, if I had to guess.

[Ross]

Dave,
So - if I've got this right - I need to make the new f/w drive bootable first, then I need to migrate the whole of my current installation on the main HDD over to the new ext drive. If I do that, I assume that the apps and data will transfer across, correct? What about the volume error? If that is due to a corrupted file (say), won't that also get transferred over? If it doesn't get transferred, then I can see that it should be OK..
Then, presumably once it's all OK (and boots from) the ext f/w drive, is the next step to reinstall OSX on the main HDD, run disk checking / volume checking, and then if all's well, migrate the f/w stuff back to the main HDD...??
Is that the correct approach?
Thx, rgds, Ross.
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[dnanian]

The migration will leave the OS on the other drive, and won't migrate "volume errors"... you should be OK. Then, clean up and erase the original drive, and just use SD! to copy back to the main HD.