Changing Partitions: Will Time Machine reinstall if I change my partitions

[Scubapro]

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I have an iMac 2.4ghz with a 320g hd, that I partitioned 50/270 when I installed Leopard. I read somewhere to have the opp system partitioned and I have been kicking myself in the rear ever since. Too many apps and files want to run next to the opp system, so I'm starting over.

I used time machine for a backup of the system (both partitions are showing) on my 1 TB iomega external hard drive (minimax). I partitioned the external 500/500, time machine/additional storage.

So that is what I'm working with, now for the question:
With my backup complete, if I do a clean install to the internal hard drive (320g) in order to remove the 50g opp/sys partition and just have one 320g internal hd; will my time machine be able to restore to a clean 320 without having the 50/270gig partition setup? If so will this be a somewhat simple process?

Hope that made sense... if not please ask questions.

-Or-

Should I go through, save all that I must have and truly start from scratch?

Thanks for reading, please help or point in the right direction...

 

[BlueRevolution]

Yes, Time Machine will restore the system exactly as you left it, only minus the patches and security updates and so forth. (You'll have to run Software Update again.) However, you'll have to scrap the Time Machine backup and start again after you do so.

 

[Scubapro]

Yes, Time Machine will restore the system exactly as you left it, only minus the patches and security updates and so forth. (You'll have to run Software Update again.) However, you'll have to scrap the Time Machine backup and start again after you do so.

So you are saying it will not have an error when it can't find partition 1 (named Opp sys) or partition 2 (named iMac HD)? TM will just restore/copy all the info from both original partitions to one internal hard drive?

I just want to make sure I'm not going to lose information; however I would like to be efficient and use time machine, if that's going to work???

 

[BlueRevolution]

No, you will experience no errors or data loss.