Time Machine?

[mikehalloran]

but did not know you can boot directly from the TM backup in the event of a total system drive failure (if that's what you're saying

That's exactly what I am saying. You boot into TM and restore to your internal drive - or your replacement drive in the case of a hardware failure. You can select the most recent backup or go back in time if you suspect a recent software install or OS update caused the problem.

Intel Macs don't like to boot from FW drives. Sometimes it works, often it doesn't. If your used a USB external, you would find it works. I use eSATA which is 5-6 times faster than usb2. A Time Capsule is very slow over wireless but faster than USB over Ethernet.

Same applies to optical drives. If you ever need to boot an intel Mac from an external, make sure that it is USB. The one that I carry in my tool kit is USB/FW/eSATA.

[NazRat]

So we have slightly different definitions of bootable which are equally valid. With yours, there is a rebuild/restore process from the bootable backup drive and with mine it's plug and play, connect the bootable/system backup drive and good to go.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

So we have slightly different definitions of bootable which are equally valid. With yours, there is a rebuild/restore process from the bootable backup drive and with mine it's plug and play, connect the bootable/system backup drive and good to go.

Agreed, and with ours you data is, at most, only one hour old.

For those totally retentive, use both methods. I always have a backup boot disk on hand - either cloned or the previous HD if I've bought a new drive.

[HCMarkus]

Retentive here.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Retentive here.

[kgdrum]

Totally retentive is not the way I'd use the term,in any case.
+1
SD & TM

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Totally retentive is not the way I'd use the term...

So would you say ...impacted?

[kgdrum]

I think you've been in Ca. too long.......
MLC goes subtle!

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I think you've been in Ca. too long.......
MLC goes subtle!

I prefer gentle.