The main issue now is time machine.  It doesn't look like I any back up now at all.  It's all blank.  Hopefully I wont have a hard drive crash while trying to get this figured out.

So, should we just re-install Leopard?

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I would say do not re-install Leopard. Snow Leopard has settled down quite a bit for me since the release of 10.6.1. I would suggest restarting the time machine backup by going to system preferences/time machine then reassociating the external drive with time machine by choosing to "select disk".