Is it safe to upgrade to Snow Leopard without doing a system backup?

Q. I've only just now bought the latest version of Snow Leopard (late, hah I know) and I've read that to be safe it's recommended that one must do a system backup on an external harddrive before upgrading. Problem is I have no external HD or external USB or anything like that. Can I still go ahead and upgrade or should I find one first? My Macbook is my main computer, being a college student, so I have a lot of important stuff on it. THanks.

A. It is *never* a good idea to upgrade any computer without backing up the system. Furthermore, it is not a good idea to not backup a computer with "a lot of important stuff on it." If your "stuff" is important to you, buy an external hard drive and start backing it up regularly.

For more details about preparing to upgrade to Snow Leopard, and performing the upgrade itself, this may also be useful to you:
http://www.everymac.com/articles/q&a/snow-leopard-mac-os-x-faq/mac-os-x-snow-leopard-how-to-install-upgrade.html

Hope this helps!

How do I do a clean install with snow leopard?

Q. Ok. How do I do a clean install with snow leopard? The OS reinstalls but the third party software is still there when I am done. I need to clean that all out because I think an issue with migration (from a macbook) has caused a conflict that is preventing my iphone from syncing. Is there a way to really wipe this thing clean and start over?

A. boot from the snow leopard dvd and start Disk utility from Utilities menu. erase the hard drive using the erase tab. quit disk utility and proceed with the install.

How can i save Mac Snow Leopard to a flash drive?

Q. How, can i take the snow leopard program and put it onto a flash drive to download on my friends computer, he lives far so i have to mail it to him, and don't want to send my disk. Could you please tell me how to transfer the program to my flash drive.

A. You can't do that. Not only would it be a felony crime to give a copy to another person, but Snow Leopard won't fit on a standard flash drive anyway. Your friend will have to buy the disk for $30.

Is snow leopard a full operating system?

Q. Is snow leopard a full operating system? I can only find Snow Leopard for $30 is it just an upgrade? I want to put it on my PC.

A. Snow Leopard is a full operating system. Apple doesn't deal with silly things like upgrade disks- there's only one version. However 1) you can legally only install OS X on Apple's computers and 2) if you do install OS X on your computer (which, since it requires a firmware called EFI instead of the standard BIOS, requires some hacking on your part), you probably won't find drivers for all your components.

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