Upgrade to Snow Leopard: What's the best backup option?

[heshamsaeed]

I have the older white MacBook (2008), running Leopard. My computer became very slow (it freezes for 10-15 sec, every 2 min !!!) - HD still has more than 30 GB free. In addition, Chrome is no more supported on Leopard, nor Flash.

I am convinced that Snow leopard will be my hero, who will solve all of this .

Now preparing for SL clean install, but I want to restore my applications as well as my data files back afterwards.

My question: is Time Machine a good option for backing up? Will it restore Leopard back once more? Will it restore any bugs or faulty software? will my computer freeze again?
I know TM can restore only Data. What about restoring applications without OS?

 

[justperry]

Make a backup, you could do this with Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC), then install a clean install of SL and after this use Migration assistant to import from the backup.

 

[BrianBaughn]

Time Machine from a TM or a CCC backup should restore your applications as long as you select the option when you're doing the migration.

 

[Fishrrman]

CarbonCopyCloner -- far better for what you need than Time Machine.

It will create a BOOTABLE backup for you. You can backup, then BOOT from the backup, then install a clean OS onto the MacBook, and then restore what you need. Migration Assistant would be a good app with which to do the restore.

You can download the FREE version of CCC (version 3.4.7) from this page:
http://www.bombich.com/download.html
(you can ignore what it says about compatibility -- it works FINE with Snow Leopard).