[george]

Being the cautious, conservative, anal-retentive type, I'd like to (combo) upgrade to OSX 10.4.4 on my Sandbox volume first (sitting on ext LaCie FW partition; running OSX 10.4.3; connected to an iBook DualUSB) to try things out.

Some users have reported problems running updates with FW drives connected and thus people like macfixit suggest it better to disconnect externals during major OS upgrades.

so... a slight conflict of interest going on here. as you mention you've been working with 1044 for sometime, i wonder if you would still recommend this tact during major OS upgrades (seems you would, but...) or yet another approach (sorry, no free internal drives here i'm afraid).

i've always thrown caution out and jumped straight in at such times in the past (successfully, thank you), but SuperDuper is so rather, ummm... Super, it's forcing me to change my habits. your thoughts? tks.

george