Question regarding app recovery after formatting.

[bearvsshark]

I recently upgraded from Snow Leopard to Lion and have noticed that I get the rainbow wheel a lot more often, and everything in general just seems a bit slower. I've decided to format my iMac's internal hard drive and install a fresh copy of Lion on it. I have already backed up everything with Time Machine. My question lies with how I will be able to recover all my apps and their settings, ect. after I have formatted and installed a new copy of Lion?

Will I have to manually install each one again and change all the settings manually, or is there a way to restore all my apps from Time Machine on the newly formatted hard drive? Thanks.

 

[davidg4781]

I've never done this, but I'm pretty sure it will transfer everything back over from Time Machine so you'll have everything set the way you left it.

 

[Lance-AR]

During install, I believe you should be able to import the time machine backup and boot to all of your old stuff.

 

[robgendreau]

We need to be more specific.

If you erase your drive and install Lion anew you will be presented with some animation and whatnot when you first start it up (actually I think it restarts during installation).

That will put you into Setup Assistant, just as if you had a new machine. Just follow directions and you should be able to migrate from a TM backup, or a machine attached to your Mac, etc. This will automatically reinstall your applications and so forth, including prefs. There are sometimes issues, but usually it just works. I've had to reenter some serial numbers, etc., and some utilities and system tweaks had to be massaged into place. But that's good: those are sometimes that things that were causing your problems, so go slow on reintroducing them so you can diagnose the source of your slow down.

Note that this is different from RESTORING. That would put everything back, as much as possible, like it was. But that's exactly what you're trying to avoid since the status quo isn't working for you.

You could also manually reinstall all your applications. A pain. Not so bad for stuff you just download from the MAS, but still work. Better to try migration, and if something isn't to your liking you can then manually reinstall that particular application.

Note that this is Apple's supported method of moving from an older machine or system to a new one, and it has become quite effective in its recent iterations. It's what you'd use if you bought a new Mac.

Rob

 

[davidg4781]

Right, I would do a fresh install then reinstall everything new and not from a backup. If you're having issues with your current setup restoring from a backup could bring back the same issues.

 

[bearvsshark]

Thanks guys. You've been a lot of help.