Works... Doesn't Work... Works!.... Doesn't Work.... Trust Time Machine?

My setup:
MacBook Pro
PowerMac G5 + External SATA Drive
Airport Extreme + External USB Drive
The PM backs up fine to the External SATA, about 90% of the time.
The MBP backs up to the External SATA (shared) about 5% of the time so I purchased the External USB for use with the Airport Extreme.
The first time I set it up and used it, it worked fine. Then it stopped working after a MBP reboot. Then randomly, this morning I noticed it was working again. But now it's not. Whenever it doesn't work it fails with "*+Time Machine Error. The backup volume could not be mounted.+*" This occurs almost 100% of the time.
The volume is in fact, already mounted. I can browse it and it is fully accessible on my desktop.
Now, if it never worked it would be one thing, but having this randomly work really has me fed up.
How could I ever trust TM knowing that the one time I really need it it has a greater than 50% chance of failing?
One more thing *I can browse my old backups using Time Machine as if nothing were wrong.*
Thoughts?

{ so i formatted the disk, reinstalled leopard and restored all my information using my time machine back-up file.
how exactly did you do that? please be specific. did you use system restore utility on the install DVD? did you use setup assistant after the reinstall? or did you use migration assistant later? or did you do it by hand?
in general you can reset the password as follows:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.5/en/11627.html
however, depending on what you did the problem might be something else.

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    Fabulous. Thank you.

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