Hoary Pre-Update Checklist

[Matthew S-H]

Before I update to Hoary, I just wanted to do/know a few things:

A)  Is it better to wait for a pressed CD or to install using a "Smart 
Upgrade" in Synaptic?
B)  What could I do if I wanted to back up my entire linux partition to 
another partition?  (I currently have plenty of unallocated space that 
I could use).  The only thing is that I would want to be able to boot 
off of either in case I don't like Hoary and want to stick with Warty 
(which I highly doubt, but would rather play safe).
C)  Anything I should be careful of when upgrading?

Thanks,
~Matt