Best way to backup and do a clean Install

[JockerBoy]

Hello,
I'm new to MAC, and i have a MBA 13'' i5 256GB.
I also use Time Machine.

I was thinking, if one day i decide to do a clean install, what is the best way?

I have some things that i want to keep (Music, images, documents and some apps).

If i restore using Time Machine i can't select what files that i want to recover, right?

It is a good ideia to do 2 partitions in HDD? One for OSX and other for documentos, music, images?

 

[Fishrrman]

"I was thinking, if one day i decide to do a clean install, what is the best way?"

Don't use Time Machine at all.

Instead, use the free "CarbonCopyCloner".

Create a BOOTABLE CLONE of your internal drive with CCC. After you have created it, TEST it to be sure that it will indeed re-boot your Mac.

Then, boot from the clone, re-initialize the drive, re-install a clean system.

After this, you can either use Migration Assistant to restore your account(s) and data, or, you can use CCC to "re-clone" selected items from your backup drive to the main drive.