[dnanian]

Ah, OK: all I'm talking about there is logging out, not shutting down. When you log out and then hold shift down when you log in, it simply prevents login items from running -- which isn't strictly necessary, but ensures that you're mostly idle when you back up.

You definitely don't have to use Safe Mode unless you're having some kind of kernel extension conflict. It doesn't sound like you're having that kind of issue at all, so no need.