Does Time Machine negate a clean install?

[evanrousso]

If I was thinking of doing a clean install of Leopard but then used Time Machine to restore my files an what not, does all the crap like cookies and cache get loaded back onto my system???

Might be a stupid question.

 

[Amdahl]

Time Machine doesn't capture most caches, so those would not come back. Cookies very likely are captured. If you are trying a clean install because you want to irradicate some unknown factor, then Time Machine may not be what you want, unless you only restore the files you know you need.

Time Machine (used from the boot DVD) is great for formatting your drive and then restoring the whole system in a defragmented state. Just make sure everything you want is actually backed up. (Like VMware machines)