After explaining how I started using TimeMachine, I would like to explain this excellent trick I found last night on Internet while backing up my system: Make a bootable Time Machine backup drive.

Isn't that cool? Having an external hard drive with all your backups from which you can boot at any time to recover your system, without having to use the install DVD? I think that's veeery cool.

So as the guy on the link explains, the easiest solution is to copy the full install DVD to the hard drive using Apple's Disk Utility. On the article mentioned, they do the copy of the DVD first and then they start using Time Machine. I have done it the other way, since I already have some backed up data, and everything seems to work fine.

Here are the steps:

1. Open Disk Utility and go to Restore tab
2. Drag the install DVD to the Source edit box
3. Drag the backup drive to the Destination edit box
4. Click on Restore

Once the process is completed, you are good to go. Opening the drive on Finder will show both the backup folder and the content of the install DVD. Now, you can test it rebooting and holding the Option key when your computer starts.

Nice, uh?