Migrating to 10.6.8 exactly how it was previously.

I do not think a clean install is necessary. However, you may find that some of your software stops working with 10.6, and also needs upgrading.

If you just do a straight installation, all your settings, data, fonts, software, mailboxes ... will be functioning as they were before, except for any incompatibilies between your non-Apple software and 10.6. If there are such incompatibilities, backups won't help if you plan to remain on 10.6. What I would suggest is to make a bootable clone of your 10.5 system, so that you can go back if 10.6 proves to be a disaster for you, then install 10.6, then do the update to 10.6.8. Check that your non-Apple apps are working, and upgrade/update any that aren't.

You might find this OmniNerd article helpful - he recommends a Time Machine backup. But if you go that route, you are going to have to copy back your home folder and its sub-folders, which is straightforward enough, and reinstall your 3rd-party software - just copying that back is likely to miss something - and your fonts. I don't think the magic backup to avoid such reinstallation exists.

Now, if you had two MBPs you could clean install one, boot the other from your clone, then use Migration Assistant to copy to the newly-upgraded machine, then boot the spare machine from its internal disk.

Either way, a lot of work.

Krissserz wrote:

But: I will do a "clean install" of 10.6.8 on my MacBook Pro.

As mentioned earlier, that's not necessary. Just install Snow Leopard on top of your current Leopard installation.

I need to know if there is a special way to backup a MacBook Pro so it can be reloaded exactly how it was (on the new OS) without having to reinstall everything, etc.

Simplest is to use something like Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! to put a bootable backup/clone of your current installation onto an ext FWHD. That will give you one that can be restored to the MBP putting you back to where you are now.

See these for details:

http://www.macmaps.com/upgradefaq.html

http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html

http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/installswupdates.html

http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/backuprecovery.html

If you absolutely must do a 'clean' install, backup as mentioned by the others.

Then, when the new installation is complete, during the setup process you'll be asked if you want to migrate your data from another source. Choose the external drive and let it do it's thing.

That will leave you with your user account as it was and all your data transferred.

But you really don't need the clean install 😉 as a standard installation will be far easier. 😎