Updated to OS 10.4.11, restarted and computer has lost almost everything

Question

OS 10.4.11
Book G4
1.5 GB Ram
Hi,
Main question: What's the procedure for transferring entire computer back up from external HD?
The problem:
I got an OS update message. The update moved me from OS 10.4.10 to 10.4.11.
I restarted when the update finished. That much I remember clearly. I am not clear; I don’t remember exactly what choices the update message gave me, and which I chose to do. I was asked, I believe, something like "Do you want to return to default" and I pressed ‘yes’. I think that choosing to “ … return to default" caused the big problem that ensued.
I’ve been taken back to the computer as though I had just started using it. Entourage doesn’t have entries or address book. My long bookmark list is gone. I have to re-fill in all my auto fill information. I think you get the picture.
I’m sure all the information up to a few days is there because I backed up everything to an external hard drive less than a week ago. I backed up “User”, the little house. I never backed up preferences separate from this User backup. I backed up Safari favorites, Entourage (the little brown box-.rg something), pictures and movies. Actually, the pictures and movies are still on the computer, except for some important ones I made recently.
My main question is: what’s the procedure for bringing all this stuff back into my computer from the external HD?
My second question has to do with the “update” process. I’ve updated successfully numerous times before this. The question is: What happened? What choices was I asked for? I don’t even recall if it was ‘default’; I think it was. However, the failure had something to do with that update process. That I know.
Thanks, Rafael

Answer 1

Hello Rafael:
I will try to answer in order:
A bootable clone means that you can start up your computer from there - just in the same way you boot up from the internal HD. Before the Intel-based iMacs, it is necessary to have an external firewire drive to make bootable clones - USB drives will not work. I just bought a firewire drive about six months ago from the Apple store - 250 GB for less than $100. SuperDuper is a very good little program that I use periodically - before every software change and about weekly in any event.
The OS X 10.4.11 combo updater can be downloaded from the Apple web site. You will not hurt anything if you reapply it, and, sometimes, using the combo updater after problems "fixes" things. Using the combo updater after one updates will not cause problems. The combo updater allows one to update from any level of OS X (within the major release level).
OS X 10.5.1 (code name Leopard was released by Apple about a month ago. It is not an update. It is considered by Apple to be a major release - translate, you would have to buy it. Apple considers maintenance updates to be 10.4.1, 10.4.2, 10.4.3 and so on (they are free). A major release is available for a charge. I will install OS X 10.5 soon, but there is no requirement to do so. Apple's literature indicates that there are about 300 new features (read about Leopard on this site if you are interested).
Hopefully I haave not confused you by all this rambling.
Barry