[njuyhb]

1) If my computer's hard drive crashes, how do I go about restoring my data from a time machine backup? (Assuming I don't back up the system - I'll just reinstall that.)

2) If I yank out the cable to the time machine hd during one of the hourly, weekly or monthly backups, does that destroy all of my backups, or just that last backup?

[TETENAL]

1) You reinstall, create the same users and then restore from the backup.
2) Probably just the current backup. But there is the chance you might hose the file system or even fry the drive. You should unmount drives before disconnecting them.

[Krusty]

1) You put in the OS X install disk and it will prompt you to restore from a Time Machine backup.

2)Technically just the last one .... but yanking the cable out while the hard drive is mounted could have adverse affects on the disk itself ... so maybe you could screw it all up by doing thing (but probably not). By the way, there is not a separate process for hourly, weekly, and monthly backups as far as I know .... each backup is done hourly and once they reach a certain age, one will be picked as the "daily" and the "monthly". I don't think any backup is materially different.

edit:doh! Shows what I get for taking a bathroom and smoke break in mid-post. Tetenal beat me to the punch.