How do you use your external HD as main HD (Mac OS Lion)?

[flapjack777]

Hey so here's the dealio. I had a 500G hard drive hooked up to my old imac as a time machine back up and it had been backing up my computer for awhile. I got rid of that computer and I'm using someones macbook pro for now and have created my own user account. How do I get all my stuff back on this user account using my backup without using the laptops own internal memory (because there is not enough) but just my 500G HD memory?
I'm not sure how clear the question is so let me know if you guys have any questions.
thanks for the help dudes

 

[michelg1970]

Hey so here's the dealio. I had a 500G hard drive hooked up to my old imac as a time machine back up and it had been backing up my computer for awhile. I got rid of that computer and I'm using someones macbook pro for now and have created my own user account. How do I get all my stuff back on this user account using my backup without using the laptops own internal memory (because there is not enough) but just my 500G HD memory?
I'm not sure how clear the question is so let me know if you guys have any questions.
thanks for the help dudes

Hi!

Your question is clear.

You need another external drive GUID formatted. Install OS X on it. Boot the MacBook from this external drive and then restore your time machine backup to this external drive.

To start from a USB storage device, connect the device, then select it in Startup Disk preferences. Or, connect the device, restart, and immediately press and hold the Option key to access Startup Manager and select your external drive as start up drive.

Thats it!