Time Machine Backup help

[Devie]

Hi guys, the HDD in my 1TB iMac died on me today, so I went out and got myself a shiny new 500GB SSD to replace it. Get to the point to recover from my backup and its telling me I don't have enough space, which is understandable. Currently installing Mavericks from a USB boot drive I made a while back and will be throwing Yosemite on it which I have downloaded already (hence didn't want to use the net tool as the download would take 14 weeks)

Question is, can I still go through the backup and take out the files I want? There's a good 700gb worth of stuff I can do without on the drive, I just want the photo's and documents...

 

[Devie]

Never mind worked it out, after running the install from the USB it asked me if I wanted to migrate from a backup which worked a treat.

Another note for anyone replacing a HDD with one without the apple temp sensor, you need an app to control the fans as they go ape **** otherwise, I used SSDFanControl. Worked instantly.