Re-installing OS X and Upgrade Card

I have a G4 Digital Audio 466. A few months ago I bought a Sonnet Upgrade card and improved my speed to 1.4GH... it flew! A couple of months after that I started getting massive Kernel Panics. I removed the upgrade card and it's worked fine since. Sonnet has since sent me a new card which I would like to re-install. They suggested though that I do a complete wipe of the hard drive and start fresh. I bought a 250 GB external hard drive to back up my info and files, but what I'm wondering is whether or not the firmware upgrade I had to install before putting in the card will be effected by the clean install of the OS. Also, what's the best way to back up everything? Carbon Copy? I don't want the same problems I was having to spring up again (font problems, little crap like that...) Any advice? Sorry this is so involved.

Firmware is stored in your computer's ROM and will not be affected by what you do to your harddisk.

Yeah, your computer will be fine if you back it up and reinstall. I just backed my HD up with the terminal, I have more control... www.osxfaq.com I believe is the place for a quick tutorial. Otherwise drag and drop works too . Or instal an OS on your external HD and drag them over that way.

Thanks for the advice. I'm going to attempt this tomorrow night and will hopefully be running full steam in the next couple of days. Would you wipe the hard drive, re-install all the software and load old files back before you put the new upgrade card in, or should I put the card in and then do the wipe?