Appication settings when using Time Machine Backups (TMB)

[sui.page]

SSD's are quite cheap now so I'm looking to upgrade my current SSD to a larger one. I want to make the process as seamless as possible so all my applications settings, menu widgets etc. Essentially everything on my current SSD needs to be copies exactly as is to my new one.

Would TMB's be able to do this and copy my OS with all files over to a new SSD? Any input would be much appreciated.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Yes. It somewhat depends on the hardware exactly how you'll do it - anything 2011 or newer supports "Internet Recovery", which has an option for restoring a TM backup. Just put in the new drive, hold down Command–R, and follow the prompts to restore.

 

[sui.page]

Yes. It somewhat depends on the hardware exactly how you'll do it - anything 2011 or newer supports "Internet Recovery", which has an option for restoring a TM backup. Just put in the new drive, hold down Command–R, and follow the prompts to restore.

So I don't need to make a bootable USB with 'Recovery Disk Assistant'? Will just plugging in my external hard drive with the backups suffice when I press Command-R?

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Correct. See http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427 - expand the section "Restoring data from Time Machine backups", scroll down to "Restoring your entire system from a backup". Pretty straightforward.

 

[Weaselboy]

SSD's are quite cheap now so I'm looking to upgrade my current SSD to a larger one. I want to make the process as seamless as possible so all my applications settings, menu widgets etc. Essentially everything on my current SSD needs to be copies exactly as is to my new one.

Would TMB's be able to do this and copy my OS with all files over to a new SSD? Any input would be much appreciated.

You don't need to bother with Internet recovery or reinstalling the OS. If your Time Machine backup was made with Lion 10.7.2 or later, you can option key boot to the TM disk. That will get you to a recovery screen where you can use Disk Util to format the SSD to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format... then quit Disk Util and click restore.

The entire OS and all your apps and data will be moved from the TM disk to your SSD.

Then just reboot and go to System Preferences Startup Disk pane and set the SSD as the boot drive.

 

[nebo1ss]

When I needed to do this previously I have always used Carbon Copy Cloner.

The new disk can be put in a USB enclosure, made bootable and then cloned from the old. You then simply take it out of the enclosure and installed in the machine.

You can even fully test it before you take it out of the USB enclosure by booting from the USB drive.