Restoring time machine backup to smaller hard drive partition

[phonyreal98]

What is the best way to restore a time machine backup to a smaller hard drive partition? My original partition was ~190 GB, I have about 90 GB worth of files that I need, and I would like to restore into a ~170 GB partition. My time machine backups are stored on an external hard drive.

 

[Fishrrman]

I don't think there will be any problems doing this.

TM doesn't back up "empty space" on a hard drive.

Just "used space" -- the files that are there.

My advice:
Just connect, then restore.

 

[Weaselboy]

What is the best way to restore a time machine backup to a smaller hard drive partition? My original partition was ~190 GB, I have about 90 GB worth of files that I need, and I would like to restore into a ~170 GB partition. My time machine backups are stored on an external hard drive.

That will work just fine since the amount of data is less than the new disk size.