Full Boot Drive Backup Using Target Disk Mode

Having experienced all sorts of problems in Windows, I don't want to just upgrade to Leopard; I want to wipe my drive and do a fresh installation. I know this is not entirely necessary, but please humor me.

Before I get down to business with my new OS, I want to make a full backup of everything I have as it is right now. I downloaded and installed Superduper!, but I am beginning to think I might not even need it.

Is there any reason why it wouldn't be better for me to connect my Powerbook to my sister's MacBook in target disk mode and use Disk Utility to create an image onto my external USB hard drive? I see no reason to risk any sort of issue resulting from me creating an image of a volume I am currently working in.

Is my paranoia warranted? Perhaps I should just trust Apple and let their software do what it's supposed to do, but I canna' do it, captain!

What you want to do will work.

You are being paranoid.

This isn't Windows, stop thinking like it. I know it's hard after years of having to do things the Windows way, but trust me. An Archive and Install would suffice for you.

After wiping my external drive, it seems like it would be a waste not to proceed. I've already got the transfer going.

It's funny, though. I've had this computer since February 2006, and I still find myself reverting to this sort of thinking. It's worked so flawlessly this whole time, too. You would think such a sterling record would help, but it seems to be having the opposite effect

The Superduper! readme document said something about Power PC machines only being able to boot from external drives over the firewire bus. This doesn't seem like a logical limitation to me. I plan on testing this once the image backup completes.

Do I need to press a hotkey in order to boot from a USB hard drive or is this a known problem?

EDIT: some light googling revealed that in order to select the boot source, hold the option key at startup. I can't boot from the disk image I created using my sister's MacBook, but apparently it is possible to boot from USB hard drives, though it may work at a reduced speed compared to a firewire drive.