HT1553 Backing up to a NTFS External Hard Drive (I have Paragon NTFS)

Question

Dear Apple experts,
I have a Macbook Pro OS X 10.6.8 and a 1.5 TB Hard Drive (USB 2.0), to which I'd like to create a backup disk image.
the 1.5 TB Hard Drive already has about 300 GB of data on it and is formatted NTFS
Macbook has Paragon NTFS on it, allowing it to write to the hard drive
I've researched and have read HT1553: Mac OS X v10.5, v10.6: How to back up and restore your files
"http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1553?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US"
I had a few ideas:
1. Partitioning the drive into 2 and formatting: 50% is NTFS and 50% is OS Extended.
Can this can be done via Disk Utility?
Can it be done without having to format, potentially losing all existing data on the external hard drive?
2. Buying another drive and formatting it to OS Extended
3. Simply creating a backup disk image to the hard drive without partitioning and formatting - seems straightforward?
this is what I would like to do. If it's not ideal, what would you suggest?
Questions:
1. Since the Macbook has Paragon NTFS, does that mean a backup disk image can be created onto the hard drive (NTFS format)?
2. Importantly, if my Macbook fails, can it read this backup disk image and thus be restored?
BACKUP
If yes to the above, can it be done this way:
Start from  Macbook (without the install disk)
Choose Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
Select the disk I wish to back up  (Macintosh HD) in the source pane on the left.
Click "Verify Disk" to check the hard disk for issues. If an issue is found, click "Repair Disk" to repair.
Click the "New Image" button in the toolbar.
Give your image a useful name such as "04-15-2009 Macintosh HD backup". A date in the name makes it easy to tell when the backup was made.
Save destination is a location to the external hard disk, then click "Save" to continue.
Enter your admin name and password if prompted. Imaging process starts.
Expect to take 2-3 hours?
May I use the computer while it is doing this?
9. When the imaging process is complete, select the newly created disk image in the device pane. 
Then, choose Images > Scan Image for Restore... from the menu bar, and let the scan complete.
is this step to make sure that the disk image is bootable?
10. Quit Disk Utility (press Command-Q). Then press Command-Q to quit the Mac OS X installer; you will be prompted to restart
RESTORE
In the event, that my laptop dies.
Go to apple store to get hard disk replaced?
How much will this cost?
Or do I get a new laptop altogether?
Connect external hard drive to laptop
Start from your Mac OS X 10.5 or 10.6 Install DVD. (Insert the disc, then restart and hold the C key.)
Select your language. Do not start an installation.
Choose Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
Select your internal Mac OS X disk that you want to restore to.
Click the Restore tab.
Drag your internal disk to the "Destination:" field.
Click the "Image..." button next to the "Source:" field.
Navigate to the location of the backup image you want to restore (located on your external disk).
Click "Open" to continue.
Click the "Restore" button. Confirm you want to "Restore to Disk" by clicking "Restore" again.
Enter your admin name and password when prompted. If the backup disk image is encrypted, enter the disk image password if necessary. The time it takes to restore from the image depends on factors such as the amount of data on your backup disk image.
What computer will be back to the way it was ?
Q: In what circumstances would I need to use Migration Assistant?
If I bought a new Macbook? For a new macbook, is there any reason why I cannot perform the above steps?
Other
My MacPro is about 3 years old at the moment. It's mainly used at home now, connected to an external monitor, though I used to take it to university.
I hope I didn't significantly shorten it's life by taking it everywhere with me.
How long typically do they last?
When should I expect that there could be 'something wrong'
What maintenance can I do? Verify and repair disks? Take it to the Apple Store to clean the internal fans? It's on 24/7 and sometimes whirs quite loudly.
Sorry if these questions are simplistic, just want to be sure.
Hopefully, your help can assist me and others also in my position.
We appreciate your help

Answer 1

For the sake of simplicity, I just split it into 2 x 750 GB.
I'm going to assume you've already backed up the 300 GB of data that was on there before repartitioning. Also just want to confirm that you made the drive map GUID when you did the partitioning. You will not be able to boot to OS X on the external if you didn't.
Skipping ahead a bit…
if I add files and use the remaining space, will I still be able to restore my computer from the clone?
If you always do a full clone, yes. If you use SuperDuper's! Smart Backup feature (paid version) or Carbon Copy Cloner's similar function, then no. The whole idea of those two is to save massive amounts of backup time by updating only what is needed to get the target drive to match the source.
4. Click "Verify Disk" to check the hard disk for issues. If an issue is found, click "Repair Disk" to repair.
You won't be able to do that. You'd be trying to repair the drive you're currently booted to before cloning it. You can only repair a drive that is not the same as the startup drive. The only way you have of doing that at the moment is to boot to your 10.6.x DVD and run Disk Utility from there to do a Repair Disk of the main drive.
5 through 9
No. Skip all of that. You'd only succeed in putting a .dmg file of the main drive onto the Mac partition of the external. You will still have no way to boot to, or restore it. Please follow the instructions I noted above for cloning the main drive to the external. The result will be an exact duplicate with all of the files and folders on the drive as on any other drive. Not compressed into a drive image. To repeat…
3) You can now use Disk Utility to clone your MBP's hard drive to the Mac formatted partition on the external. Click any logical drive (it doesn't matter which one) and choose the Restore tab. Drag and drop the MPB's logical hard drive name into the Source field at the right, and the external drive's Mac formatted drive name into the Destination field. Click Restore and let it run without doing anything else.
As an example below. With the Restore tab selected, I dragged "Mac Pro" into the Source field, and "Mavericks" into the Destination field. If I were to click the Restore button towards the lower right, the Mavericks partition will end up as an exact duplicate of whatever is on the Mac Pro drive, whether there's an OS on it or not.
Personally, this is what I would do. Launch Disk Utility and split the Mac OS Extended partition. You can do this now without repartitioning from scratch. Click on the physical drive and click the Partition tab. Grab the lower right dashed corner of the Mac partition and drag it up, like so:
Here, I kind of randomly sized it to 424.57 GB. I could click on the number to round it off if I wanted to. The point is that you will now have a gray area of unused disk space. Click the + button and a new partition will be created to fill the hole. You can do this as many times as you want. By default, the new partition with be Mac OS Extended. Click Apply.
Here's what I do with such a setup.
1) For you, the NTFS partition would be for your Windows data, or data that can be shared between the Mac and Windows. Be careful what Mac files you put on an NTFS drive. I wouldn't put a .dmg file on it.
2) Besides the NTFS partition, you now have two Mac partitions. You could clone the main drive to one of them, which will make it bootable and an exact copy of your main drive. But my choice is to install a bare bones installation of OS X on one of the partitions, along with any drive and file utilities I may need to rescue another drive, or its data. Such as DiskWarrior, File Salvage, Data Rescue, Drive Genius, etc. That's all I have on it.
The other partition is where I store backups of any other data. In this type of setup, the backup of your main drive now can be a .dmg file. You have a separate Mac partition to boot to, where you can restore the .dmg file from the second Mac partition back to the MacBook Pro's main drive.
Kind of getting back to your last question:
Or does that Mac partition have to contain only the disk image (clone) and nothing else?
Not at all a good idea to use the clone partition as a way to also store secondary files. Say you copy all kinds of other data there and then remove it from the main drive to save space. The next time you clone the main drive to the backup, all of that extra data will be wiped out. A clone is literal. Only what exists on the source drive is what will end up being on the target drive. Anything else gets removed. That is at least in part why I use multiple Mac partitions on my external drive.