Help Restore A Time Machine Backup On To A New Hard Drive

[MusicBoyVA]

The original 500 GB HDD on my Mid 2012 Macbook Pro is bad. I have purchased a Crucial MX500 1TB 3D NAND SATA 2.5 Internal SSD to replace it.

To replace the original 4GB RAM (2x2GB), I purchased A-Tech 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3/DDR3L 1600 Mhz SODIMM PC3L-12800 1.35 V CL11 204-Pin Non-ECC Unbuffered Laptop RAM.

I have a Time Machine Backup on an external HDD. It will boot into Mac OSX Utilities.

I assume the process would be to replace the RAM and HDD first.

Then attach the external drive and boot from it into Mac OSX Utilities. Alternatively I could use Internet Recovery Mode to get to Mac OSX Utilities.

Am I now supposed to format the new SSD with Disk Utilities?

Assuming that's correct, I assume I then use Disk Utilities to restore from the Time Machine backup to the SSD. Have I got this right?

I understand that Time Machine backups will overwrite the SSD. I assume that this will install the 500 GB from the backup and leave 500 GB available. It will also install an older OSX 10.10 Yosemite. Will this now make the SSD bootable? I can upgrade the OS to Catalina after I get it restored.

Have I overlooked anything?

Thanks.

 

[barbu]

- to my knowledge, time machine backs ups are not bootable
- download the macOS installer from the store. You need the installer app in /Applications to continue
- search “createinstallmedia” and follow the steps. Now you have a bootable USB.
- remove and replace disk/ram etc.
- insert USB and boot up. Press option to go to boot picker
- installer loads. Use Disk Utility to initialize new ssd
- install MacOS. When prompted, choose “restore from time machine backup”. Follow prompts.
- get a tasty beverage. It’ll be a while.
- once it reboots, you are done.

 

[MusicBoyVA]

- to my knowledge, time machine backs ups are not bootable

I may have not been clear. I have an external HD that has a system on it as well as a partition with time machine backups. I didn't mean to imply that the time machine backup was bootable.

Any advice regarding the last part

"I understand that Time Machine backups will overwrite the SSD. I assume that this will install the 500 GB from the backup and leave 500 GB available. It will also install an older OSX 10.10 Yosemite. Will this now make the SSD bootable? I can upgrade the OS to Catalina after I get it restored."

 

[barbu]

your last part is incorrect. Time machine restore runs after you have installed a fresh system. It does not overwrite your disk. It just puts all your files back where they go. Time machine does not include all the OS files, so you cannot recompose a TM backup as a working system.