Should I use Time Machine in this Scenario?

[chris.mo]

Scenario: Relatively new Early 2013 MBP. I want to wipe the drive and do a clean install of OSX. I then want to then restore select files, not everything.

If I use Time Machine, will I be able to pick and choose what I want to restore and even put them in alternate locations? I would just save what I want to a portable drive, but figure I may forget or miss something. Having a complete backup just seems easier but I'm not sure if I can then pick and choose what I want and not sure how it will interact with a new installation.

Thanks

 

[Bruno09]

Time Machine is not the right tool in your case.

The best way is to clone your Mac to an external hard drive (use Carbon Copy Cloner 3.4.7 which is free and works with ML).

The clone is a full and bootable backup.

After installing the OS, just open 2 windows side by side in Finder , and drag'n drop what you want to where you want from the clone to the Mac.

 

[westonm]

You can pick and choose files out of a standard Time Machine backup.

I've done it several times.

 

[benji888]

Both answers are good ones, however, if you don't have a place to do a carbon copy, then, using Time Machine is fine. Only thing is, when you pick items from Time Machine, it will restore it to it's previous folder location, but, you can then move it where you want. Perhaps a method that might work for you would be to do your fresh install of OS X, put nothing else on, restore what you want from Time Machine, moving those items you want to move into a new folder with a unique name (ABYSS). Do the rest of your Install/restore (your apps and such), then move the items from (ABYSS) to where you want.

Am I being helpful, or confusing? Let me know, I'll try to give more detail/say a different way.

I have a carbon copy of my old 250GB internal hard drive on an external 325GB drive. I did this before upgrading to a 750GB internal. I did this because I had Time Machine on a partition of another external drive and wanted to erase that drive and use all of it for Time Machine.

 

[palebluedot]

Scenario: Relatively new Early 2013 MBP. I want to wipe the drive and do a clean install of OSX. I then want to then restore select files, not everything.

If I use Time Machine, will I be able to pick and choose what I want to restore and even put them in alternate locations? I would just save what I want to a portable drive, but figure I may forget or miss something. Having a complete backup just seems easier but I'm not sure if I can then pick and choose what I want and not sure how it will interact with a new installation.

Thanks

Yes. I use a Time Machine/Capsule and format all the time in this method. It's as simple as opening up the "Latest" TM backup using the alias in your TM and then just dragging the files you want to copy to wherever you want them on your new desktop.

 

[chris.mo]

Thanks for the answers. Since I just bought a 2 tb passport external drive, I might as well do both methods and see which I like better.

Benji888, I don't understand what 'ABYSS' means but assume that's just your preferred name for an alias. If I'm missing something, please let me know. Thanks!

 

[benji888]

Yes. I use a Time Machine/Capsule and format all the time in this method. It's as simple as opening up the "Latest" TM backup using the alias in your TM and then just dragging the files you want to copy to wherever you want them on your new desktop.

huh? ...hmmm... I guess, with Time Machine turned off, and the backup drive connected, I can just drag the files. For some reason, I thought they were in a compressed format or hidden folders and I couldn't do this.

Thanks for the answers. Since I just bought a 2 tb passport external drive, I might as well do both methods and see which I like better.

Benji888, I don't understand what 'ABYSS' means but assume that's just your preferred name for an alias. If I'm missing something, please let me know. Thanks!

I didn't realize you could drag and drop the files, (see my reply to palebluedot) I thought I had to use Time Machine to restore them to their previous locations (which comes in handy if you updated a file you didn't mean to, which is mostly when I've used it). So, I thought you'd have to restore them to their previous locations, move them to a new folder (called "ABYSS"), then put all your stuff on your Mac, and take the files in "ABYSS" and move them where you want. Make sense now?

 

[Bear]

...

I didn't realize you could drag and drop the files, (see my reply to palebluedot) I thought I had to use Time Machine to restore them to their previous locations (which comes in handy if you updated a file you didn't mean to, which is mostly when I've used it). So, I thought you'd have to restore them to their previous locations, move them to a new folder (called "ABYSS"), then put all your stuff on your Mac, and take the files in "ABYSS" and move them where you want. Make sense now?

Using the Time Machine interface (not Setup Assistant/Migration Assistant) you can actually select where you want restored files to go to.

 

[benji888]

Using the Time Machine interface (not Setup Assistant/Migration Assistant) you can actually select where you want restored files to go to.

There is no Time Machine interface with menus like that, or any menus at all, except the optional one for starting a backup or going to time machine, etc...is this something new with Mavericks? ...Unless you have a Time Capsule, does it have this feature? I've never seen this menu.

 

[Bear]

There is no Time Machine interface with menus like that, or any menus at all, except the optional one for starting a backup or going to time machine, etc...is this something new with Mavericks? ...Unless you have a Time Capsule, does it have this feature? I've never seen this menu.

You need to "Enter Time Machine" and be browsing a backup to get that right click menu. And it's been in there since at least Snow Leopard.

 

[Nermal]

There is no Time Machine interface with menus like that, or any menus at all, except the optional one for starting a backup or going to time machine, etc...is this something new with Mavericks? ...Unless you have a Time Capsule, does it have this feature? I've never seen this menu.

I'd never seen it either but I just took a look (running 10.8.5 with a plain old drive) and it's there.

 

[benji888]

You need to "Enter Time Machine" and be browsing a backup to get that right click menu. And it's been in there since at least Snow Leopard.

I've never tried that before...been using Time Machine since the feature was added

Way back, I read this, and thought this was it, the only thing you could do: "When you locate the file or folder you want to restore, click on it once to select it, and then click on the Restore button in the lower right corner of the screen. Time Machine copies the file to the same location in the “present,” returning you to that folder in the Finder."

I'm still waiting for the ability to change the settings of when/how often it does it's automatic backups, though.