Clean reinstall of Snow Leopard questions

Having major issues with IPHOTO and may have to reinstall Snow. I originally had Leopard and this is a Snow upgrade. A few questions, (1)am I able to back up the OS to another drive WITHOUT installing IPHOTO? HOW?- (2)if so, when I reinstall the OS do I have to install Leopard and then the Snow upgrade or just the Snow upgrade? Will zero out the hard drive and reinstall - want to make sure the back up of email, documents, address book, etc will be allowed so important to know if I have to install Leopard first. Hate to find out that the files won't install because of a version or OS issue.
Is it possible that the install disc may have a repair function??

Hello z:
I will attempt to answer your questions:
(1)am I able to back up the OS to another drive WITHOUT installing IPHOTO? HOW?-
Yes. Use either Time Machine or make a bootable clone (SuperDuper or similar). However, since I do not know what problem you have with iPhoto, I do not know exactly where you are.
(2)if so, when I reinstall the OS do I have to install Leopard and then the Snow upgrade or just the Snow upgrade? Will zero out the hard drive and reinstall - want to make sure the back up of email, documents, address book, etc will be allowed so important to know if I have to install Leopard first. Hate to find out that the files won't install because of a version or OS issue.
You do not have to install OS X 10.5. I would strongly suggest that (after backing up), you reinstall OS X 10.6 over your existing installation (upgrade). IMHO, an erase and install (there is no clean install) should be reserved for disasters. Too many bad things can happen.
Is it possible that the install disc may have a repair function??
Yes, but I have not looked so I cannot really know.
Also IMHO, I think I would try to fix the iPhoto problem. Jumping to an erase and install is probably not necessary. There are excellent people that post in the iPhoto forum if you want to go that way.
Barry

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