Help with clean install of snow leopard and restore from backup

I would actually recommend an archive and install, which would take away the need to restore as it does everything for you.

 

hi, can anybody clarify what exactly the restoring does?? does it install snow leopard from zero and then restore the data from time machine??
if so, what does the migration do?? it's just for restoring after you installed a clean copy of snow leopard??
thanks for your help. i'm trying to reinstall snow leopard to boost it a lil' bit but i'm not sure which one i should pick. i got everything backed up in a time machine hard drive.

Ricky

 

My standard practise is to copy the entire user folder to an external hard drive and reformat the main hard drive from disk utility on the Leopard CD. When I've put the system back I recreate the admin account with the same short user name and put back all the stuff from my old user file with the exception of the library, where I pick and choose, usually just the mail prefs and files, keychain, iCal and the like.

 

i would like to do similar thing. time-machine for backup.

is the recommended process to start from SL DVD and choose time-machine recovery ? will the system works better ? does it actually copy data in the most efficient order for max. hard-drive performance ?

 

hey joecool99!

I didn't find any answer here, but at least I tried both methods and figured out how it works and what the best is.
+ First of all, you should make a back up of all your important files (usually your home folder) just in case. You can get another copy of any software or buy more music but you will never recover a lost picture or an important spreadsheet.
+ Consider your mac useless now. So, use the SL installer and don't choose to upgrade. Let the cd run after restart and choose under Utilities, the System Utilities option. Here, format the volume you've been using (yeap, that's why you need an additional back up). This won't take long.
+ Once your mac is empty, use the SL cd again to install a fresh copy of the OS. Don't choose to recover from time machine yet, as you want to boost the system. This is supposed to take about 30 minutes.
+ Once the OS is installed, you will be prompted to enter some information and then it will give you the option to use Migration Assistant. This time you go there and choose your time machine volume to recover your data. This will take from 30 to 60 minutes for every 100 gigs.
+ You're ready to go! Your mac will be exactly the same when you last used it but will have a new SL OS running.
I did this procedure and my mac is a little bit better as I expected. There's not big difference but you can see the difference by timing the start-up and shut-down processes. Hope this helps you.
About the additional back up, I trust in time machine but you have to take precautions. Once you finish the process you can delete this back up from wherever you created it or keep just in case (it should be a different drive) if you're turning neurotic.

Cheers,
Ricky

PS. I also tried the direct recovery option but I ended up with problems on every application.