[buzlink]

I am getting ready to install Vista

How do I backup my existing user account, so if something goes wrong I can wipe my drive and reinstall OS X, and place back my user dir. .

Also what is the best way to install Vista with Bootcamp, leaving OS X intact and main OS on the system?

I'm installing onto a Macbook Pro

Thanks

[ghporter]

That's pretty pessimistic sounding there! Back up your personal folders (your "home" stuff basically) to some offline device. Then run Boot Camp and see that it's pretty darn good at not hosing things up. Sleep easy.

Really, you should always keep your important stuff backed up, so this step is just an extra precaution.

OS X will remain the primary boot OS. If somehow you wind up booting to Vista instead, restart and hold the Option key when your MBP chimes. You'll get the option to choose either OS X or Vista. There's also a chooser that's installed in the Windows XP Control Panel when you install the Apple drivers, but I don't know if this translates into Vista or not.

Take it easy, read all the directions ahead of time, and enjoy the easy success.

[buzlink]

How do I go about backing things up in OS X? I want to make sure I don't run into any problems if I have to migrate my account onto a clean system.
Such as things not being accessible if my files are tied to my username login.
(Not sure if this is the case) I'm new to OS X

Also do I have to install XP first and then upgrade to Vista, or will Bootcamp let me install Vista?

Thanks

[Apfhex]

Personal settings are all stored in your Home directory ( /Users/yourusername ). If you need to restore your stuff from a backup, if you create a new user account the same name as the one for the Home directory you backed up you'll run into a minimal amount of problems.

Vista can be installed just like XP, there's no difference. If you only have an upgrade license for Vista you'll need to install it from within XP (there are workarounds to this), but nothing about installing it on your Mac changes the process.

[mac128k-1984]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

That's pretty pessimistic sounding there! Back up your personal folders (your "home" stuff basically) to some offline device.

Well its always a good idea to have a backup and I've read too many threads about people whacking their osx partition by mistake so backing up your home directory is always a good idea when your working with utilities that change the partition.

Back to the OP - As for how best to set it up, just select the size of the partition you wish and install. Its pretty seemless. Depending on your needs you may find parallels to be a better option, though I think parallels works better (performance wise) with XP then vista but it lets you avoid partitioning the drive and you won't need to reboot the computer to use windows.