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clean install + selective restore

E

ekinnyc

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 22, 2008
110
8
hey guys

i decided to upgrade my late 2008 MB to a 500GB WD Scorpio Black. since this will be my first time upgrading a mac, i am not 100% sure how to proceed....

i want to do a clean install of OS X (10.5) and restore selected data from my TM backup - meaning, i want to restore all docs, pics, music, etc... but dont necessarily want to restore old system files and such. i can then reinstall my apps for a clean, new OSX install. my question is, how do i approach this?

or.... should i just do a full TM restore? will there be a major difference in performance if the old (perhaps congested) system files get restored over?

thanks
 
Restore Apps and the home folder with migration assistant. You can do the same for itunes and iphoto ect. Just dont do a full TM restore and the system files will be left behind.
 
thanks for replying.

i am very new to reinstalling OS X and restoring. whenever i had to reinstall winxp, id just back up my files to an external, and just copy them back over.

can you give me a dumbed-down version of your answer, or perhaps point me to some reading?

i thought the process was such:

1. run TM backup
2. install new HD
3. install OS X from restore DVD

it gets hazy after this... how do i do a data restore? wont restoring programs bring with it old system files? after 2.5yrs of using osx, i still dont really understand it, i suppose i still have the windows mindset after using it since the days of 3.11

i thought about doing the same as above - just copy all my important files over, and copy them back. however, id have to reinstall all of my programs, re-do my settings and such....

help! thanks
 
this all sounds simple... BUT

i did a clean install of OS X 10.5 onto my new HD
i chose not to restore during installation

after everything was up and running, i updated the os x software to 10.5.8 etc

but, now, when i go into migration assistant, and choose to restore from TM, it cannot locate my TM backup disk. its plugged in, and OSX sees the drive and its contents. its the orange icon, not blue/green. even if i set that to be the TM drive under this install, MA still doesnt see the backup drive. what do i do now? i copied all my music, docs, etc onto a different external, but its a major PITA to re-set all of my settings, and reinstall all of the software.
 
so much for getting much help

MA didnt work, no idea why.

took a lot of figuring out, but i created an additional admin user, restored original user from TM backup, copied/reinstalled apps, and deleted the additional user.

other than a few .plist files from apps i chose not to reinstall, and a few broken permissions, everything is pretty smooth so far. TM was able to register the new HD and begin backing up to the same drive, and since its the same user name, i retained my incremental backup history from before the upgrade
 
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