how to transfer files to external hard drive in a Apple iMac in Single User Mode?

Q. okay my iMac hard drive is in the point of collapse, Mac OSX wont load after an update and its stuck in an endless loop when it tries to load X, nevertheless, i have to transfer a ton of files to my external hard drive in order to back up these very very important documents. mac osx works good only in single user mode and i need to copy and paste a directory into my external hard drive... can someone please tell me step by step the commands to transfer the files...i also need to know extactly how to mount the external hard drive...i believe im suppose to sudo cp /User/<myname> then something please help im lost

Answer
If you have a Firewire cable and external hard drive, you should be able to boot the iMac from the factory DVD and transfer directly from the iMac to the drive.

If have a friend with a Mac OSX and a Firewire cable, start up the friend's Mac. Once finished starting up connect the Macs with the Firewire cable and start up your iMac, holding down the 'T' key. The friends iMac should show a new Firewire drive, your iMac. You should be able to transfer files without mucking about with the Terminal.

If neither of these is an option, do you have an Apple Store nearby?

How to install Ubuntu on an external hard drive on an iMac?

Jimmy S

Here's my tools:
A new (2008) 24" iMac 3.06ghz, 2gb of ram, 250gb of hard drive space with windows vista ultimate installed.

A 500gb western digital My Book edition external hard drive.
A 250GB maxtor OneTouch II external hard drive.

I would like a guide to show me how to install Ubuntu on an external hard drive (either one hard drive is fine) on a mac. I have done a little research and know that I have to have a live cd and that I have to set up my computer to have the bios boot from cd but I am not sure how to do that on a mac. Any guide would be fine.
All of the answers so far are great advice and exactly what I am looking for however, like one answers dictates, how do you go about changing the bios on a mac?

Answer
You can go to
https://help.ubuntu.com/
or
http://www.ubuntu.com/support
for help. Also try
http://ubuntuforums.org/
for user forums to help you figure it out. Do you have your Live CD yet?
If so, put it in your drive, making sure your external is connected, and reboot your computer. It may boot from the disk, if so, install it on the external.
You can try it without installing it, and it will run from the cd, and there will be a desktop environment with an install icon on the desktop. double click it, and choose the drive you wish to install it on, and follow the prompts. hope I helped, I just began using it about 2 weeks ago. It helps if you have Linux experience, I ran Debian for a couple of years on my server, but Ubuntu is great. Hope you enjoy!

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