SuperDuper

I have a single partition on my iBook running Tiger. I use SuperDuper to back up (clone) the drive once a week, or more. What I want to do is run a backup, re-partition the drive so that there are three partitions, and then restore my existing clone of the original single partition onto the first partition in the new 3-partition scheme. So, one partition becomes three, and OS...

Carbon Copy Cloner is free, although I don't think you can "schedule" it for automatic backups. It also doesn't work with Intel based Macs. For my MacBook Pro, I use SuperDuper.

Not all FireWire drives are bootable. It depends on the manufacturer, and many manufacturers don't even know for sure if their models will be bootable on a Mac, especially if they deal mostly with PC users and don't cater to a Mac audience. (At least, that's what I've read in a few places.) Generally, if your FireWire drive cannot have the OS installed on it, it is not...

I'm glad you're OK now. But it's time for the obligatory lecture. BACKUPS ARE NOT OPTIONAL Get an external Firewire drive (I have two) and backup your drive using SuperDuper or something similar (SuperDuper is Great). Then you won't be sweating bullets next time some dodgy install knackers your machine.

You can use SuperDuper to clone your drive. ...

iMsafe http://macupdate.com/info.php/id/8874 is a good one, and it's free. SuperDuper http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/13803 while not free(it's $27.95) is excellent.

hidden folder called "volumes" which had a backup of my entire hard drive. Somehow, I guess, I must've inadvertanly backed up my hard drive using Carbon Copy or SuperDuper to my computer hard drive, instead of to my external hard drive. Whoops. Thansk for your help. ...

Use SuperDuper

Another vote for SuperDuper here: cheap fast good (and yes that's all three of 'em!) If it is to be free, fast and good enough, try PsyncX.

SuperDuper for complete cloning of your entire drive. I use Chronosycn for automatic daily backups of files and folders.