Question about reinstalling OSX and Time Machine?

[Imola Ghost]

Ok, I've only had my Macbook for several days now and I believe a failed system update messed up my computer. On boot up I sometimes get a circle with a slash, and I seem to getting more and more spinning beach balls. Some of which spin and won't let me do anything.

Last night I ran Disk Repair and then I ran Time Machine for the first time. My question is that if I were going to reinstall OSX will Time Machine put all of my programs, settings and anything I changed back in the new install?

I'd like to put my Macbook back to the way it is now but without the spinning beach balls and startup problems.

 

[gr8tfly]

First off, did Disk Repair find any problems?

If the drive's ok, then you can use Time Machine to migrate apps and data to a clean install of Leopard.

 

[Imola Ghost]

As far as I know, Disk Repair didn't fix the problems I am having. Will Time Machine put back specific settings I have set up for programs?

 

[gr8tfly]

As far as I know, Disk Repair didn't fix the problems I am having. Will Time Machine put back specific settings I have set up for programs?

Yes, it should. There options for which items you want to migrate - it sounds like you want to migrate everything, which would in include your ~/Library folder. All your settings should be there. Sometimes you'll have to reenter a serial number, or reauthorize an app, but for the most part it does a thorough job.

Here's a KB on the Migration Assistant: Mac OS X 10.5: Using Migration Assistant to transfer files from another Mac