Installing SSD and then restoring

[watercool]

So I updated my MacBook Pro (mid 2009) and installed Yosemite.
I did a time machine backup onto my external hd.

I've unplugged my HDD and the SDD is where that used to be.

I erased the SSD and put as journaled.

I started the laptop and pressed cmd + R and then clicked on the 'start from time machine backup' one.

I then chose my external HD as the back up drive and SSD as destination drive but then it said there wasn't enough room. Noooooo!

So Its taken a lot of effort to get to this point because I'm an idiot. I've googled my current problem and I can't understand what people are saying...they're too technical!

Any help put in a really simple way would be so amazing. Thanks

 

[JTToft]

Your external hard drive should be the source of, not the destination for the backup when you're restoring. If your Time Machine backup is larger than the capacity of your SSD, you can't restore your backup - at least not all of it, so you'll have to be selective if that's the case.

 

[watercool]

Sorry that was a typo, I'll just amend it.

So yeah, not enough space, so how do I work around this? I've read you can't just take files off the time machine back up.

 

[JTToft]

Sorry that was a typo, I'll just amend it.

So yeah, not enough space, so how do I work around this? I've read you can't just take files off the time machine back up.

- I've always done complete restores myself, but I believe there should be a way to do a selective one. If not in the recovery function you're in now, then from within OS X itself using Migration Assistant. But I'm not sure actually.

Another option is to install OS X from scratch (you should have that option where you are now) and then manually copy things over from your TM drive after that.

 

[watercool]

Does my SSD drive need to be in the original HDD place and the HDD in the optical bay?

Also, can I have them both plugged in to do this next stage?

 

[JTToft]

Does my SSD drive need to be in the original HDD place and the HDD in the optical bay?

- Strictly, no. I'm not at my machine right now, so I don't have the info I'd like to, but from what I've been able to Google in 5 minutes the SSD will only function at SATA I speeds in the optical bay, while it'll work at SATA II speeds in the hard drive bay (which is twice as fast). So you're probably better off with the SSD in the hard drive bay.

Also, can I have them both plugged in to do this next stage?

- Yes. Just make sure you don't accidentally select the wrong disk for something and erase data you need.

 

[watercool]

My mac is now much faster, horay!

But a warning message just popped up saying my start up disk is almost full.
Is this my SSD?

What can I do to free up some space?

 

[JTToft]

But a warning message just popped up saying my start up disk is almost full.
Is this my SSD?

- Yes. To see how much you have left, open Disk Utility and look at the Macintosh HD partition (or whatever you've named it).

What can I do to free up some space?

- Delete stuff. I recommend DaisyDisk for a graphical layout of your files and folders to easily see what's taking up the most space.