Still Using Tiger, Was getting Ready to Install Leopard..

Question

Hello-
I am still using Tiger but was getting ready to purchase Leopard, get the Missing Manual for Leopard and then Snow Leopard came out. So, I am getting a new MacBook Pro and that comes or is already installed with Snow Leopard. I was going to order one of David Pogue Manuals: Snow Leopard: The Missing Manual, or another one when someone changes, I think, from a Windowez-based OS to Snow Leopard OS X.
After thinking about it, I am wondering should I be getting both or for now just the Leopard Missing Manual rather then Snow Leopard: The Missing Manual. Is Snow Leopard like Leopard? Do you think I would be better off knowing or having a reference available for Leopard and trying to use The Leopard Manual initially rather then the snow Leopard. From what I have read, it sounds like Snow Leopard is almost like a major Leopard update, but I could be wrong.
I am not sure. I don't want to be (again) like the lost guy because I skipped a step. Also, there are a lot of manuals out on these topics but David P's is still not out (as far as I know). Would anybody recommend one of the other manuals that are out?
Thanks for your help. For somebody like me learning this stuff is hard. It does not come naturally so I am looking forward to having a good resource like these Missing Manuals available.

Answer 1

Neville- (I hope you can read both sections because I am curious to know if you are familiar wit what I am trying to describe in the second paragraph.)
I am not sure I can accurately explain why I have not done these, but I did do something like this and I had the applecare lady on the phone so I knew she could help me if I messed up. It was something very similar but there were 2 options to repair (choose repair I should say). One said it was very short in length and the other was very long. I do not remember holding down the "C" key but I might have held down the command or some other key. Also I did not get the chance to go any further because I did not pick the short method, I chose the long one and I had to run. The applecare lady was actually not on the phone the whole time she gave me her extension to reach her if I needed to. I thought that was nice.
When I got the MBP about 3 years ago, I was going to do some fixing and I called applecare. They told me (and her is where I am not sure of my facts) that the TechTool should not be used for some reason. They told me to go to the apple support page, get a DVD that allows you to "write" and find the latest DeluxeTechTool (which apparently did not come with my machine because it had not been out yet). Once I copy the Tool from the site to the DVD, I then use that and insert it before I boot up and the rest I forget.
Do you know anything about this? I remember going to the area she said and seeing the ability to download and copy the newer DeluxeTechTool but I did not do it because at Best Buy I could not find anybody who knew the kind of DVD I would need nor what the ones they did have were for.
I do need this info. too because I have never backed up the machine. If I get a new one I want to get into the habit of backing up all the time, but I will have to learn to. If you know of where a good place is on the web that describes what the R, RW, C, CR, etc. mean for the DVDs and CDs. Even at Costco every worker in electronics did not know the answer to that question.
Some I would need to just burn or copy one thing onto either the CD or the DVD like that DeluxeTechTool and some I would want to keep copying or burning multiple times. And then even some I would like to be able to burn songs on them and transfer them to my iTunes and use that same CD or DVD for a movie to be able to do it over and over again. (Unless the quality goes down with each copy and overwrite I do.)
thanks for your help with the "repair procedure" but I could tell there are some things left out that I would not know what to do. I know now because of what I recently did by the "Apple self test" or whatever it was called I did. Questions I would have would be; when you say insert the original software DVD, I would need to know when do I insert and I think I have 2 CDs that came with the machine. Is there one that says "software" and the other says "hard drive?"
When you say C key are you talking about the key with only the "C" on it?
If I repair permissions all the time by using disk utility while the notebook is on, why dos it say it repaired so many (I forge the word it used) but it will then give what it repaired. It will say things like ro-ororro-o should have been ro-ro- . Things like that.
My final question is, somebody told me if I hold down the shift key and restart the computer and keep holding the shift key until the turning wheel stops and it says "Safe Mode." They told me doing this is the same as repairing the permissions by the more complex way. it is interesting because it does create some a long what appears to be either a file name or something like when you start disk utility just by using the utility.app on my dock, once you start that up and get ready to use it there are 2 long (I am not even sure what to call them) but one has Media in it and then the long list of letters and I think numbers and one just has the long list of letters/or numbers. It is here that I never understood which one is my hard drive and which one to select or repair the permissions. The example is terrible because the picture in the Help page shows a list that is about double the length of mine and is very hard to know which list to pick to be repaired. Also when they say pick your hard drive, I have no idea which one is my hard drive. It does not say "hard drive" next to the numeric code but I think one is left aligned and the other is aligned center or something like that. Also, one code I think has "Media" next to the numeric name.
Thanks for listening to this. I doubt it makes much sense but maybe with you seeming like an expert in Macs, you might be able to figure out what I am trying to say.
Peace