Can Time Machine move OS between hard drives?

[wgilles]

Well my HD is having some issues and I needed a bigger one anyway so I decided to get a 320GB WD hard drive. I have my OS currently backed up using Time Machine on a WD external drive. When I install my new OS, can I simple plug in my Time Machine drive after installing OSX and restore it?

 

[Dimwhit]

You should be able to, yes. Provided TM was doing a complete backup. It's going to take a while, though.

 

[wgilles]

Yeah I have it set to backup the entire OS X content. Thanks. Well if it doesn't work I guess I could just manually copy everything over from there.

 

[jeremy.king]

The Migration Assistant can use TM backups.

 

[Allanist]

Yeah I have it set to backup the entire OS X content. Thanks. Well if it doesn't work I guess I could just manually copy everything over from there.

I recently upgraded my disk, something like:
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/time-machine-hdd-swap/the-secret-of-the-time-machine+assisted-hard-drive-swap-333319.php

 

[Amdahl]

Even better...

When the OS X DVD boots, go to the Utilities menu and select Time Machine. It can restore your backup directly to the new hard disk, without doing a plain install first.

 

[wgilles]

Even better...

When the OS X DVD boots, go to the Utilities menu and select Time Machine. It can restore your backup directly to the new hard disk, without doing a plain install first.

Sweet, that will work.