Time machine / bootcamp

[zeppo2]

I have my macbook (purchase Feb 2015) partitioned with bootcamp, which was installed within days of getting it.

I've had odd occurrences with Safari not wanting to load pages I use everyday while Chrome is works fine in loading them, and other performance issues like the keyboard and trackpad freezing occasionally.

I could reset the PRAM, but I feel like it might be time to, if not wipe and reinstall the macOS cleanly, maybe just use time machine to go back to my clean install after the bootcamp was set up.

My first question is if I were to go back to a time machine image of say April 30, 2015, does that eliminate access to any time machine backups from May 2015 to the present? Not sure if it is starting a new branch of backup so to speak that cuts off access to the old branch. Don't think it would be a problem because I back up my files anyway on other drives, but just want to know.

My second question is whether or not there are any concerns I need to have about my windows partition access when I do a time machine reinstall?


THanks

 

[techwarrior]

Reinstall or TM Restore will only affect the partition with the Mac OS.

Restoring a 3 year old backup will lose a lot of stuff from the interim, if you can pin own when the problem started and restore from a closer point, you may save yourself a lot of grief.

Or, you could do a fresh install, and them use migration assistant to restore user files and applications but leave system settings fresh. That might resolve your issue and give you a bit of a fresh start. If your documents are back up to other sources, you might skip the user migration part so as to get rid of any user settings which might be causing your issues.

TM Restore is an all or nothing proposition. Migration Assistant allows you to drill down and skip some stuff. MA also allows you to migrate stuff to a new version of the OS.

 

[zeppo2]

Restoring a 3 year old backup will lose a lot of stuff from the interim, if you can pin own when the problem started and restore from a closer point, you may save yourself a lot of grief.

Or, you could do a fresh install, and them use migration assistant to restore user files and applications but leave system settings fresh. That might resolve your issue and give you a bit of a fresh start. If your documents are back up to other sources, you might skip the user migration part so as to get rid of any user settings which might be causing your issues.

TM Restore is an all or nothing proposition. Migration Assistant allows you to drill down and skip some stuff. MA also allows you to migrate stuff to a new version of the OS.

Thanks. I'll look into the Migration Assistant.
[ I edited my original post. I actually bought the macbook new in early Feb 2015) .]

My thought on the TM Restore is that it would basically take me back to a clean install of El Capitan, from which I would upgrade to Sierra or High Sierra.

I'm still not clear though. Does a TM restore eliminate access to backups that were made after the date of the one I restore? That is, if I restore back to April 30, 2015, can I later still go back and restore to one of my June 2017 backups, for instance?

 

[techwarrior]

I'm still not clear though. Does a TM restore eliminate access to backups that were made after the date of the one I restore? That is, if I restore back to April 30, 2015, can I later still go back and restore to one of my June 2017 backups, for instance?

Not entirely sure, I would think so but have only done restores from the latest. if it is possible, you would want to turn off TM until you can manually recover whatever you need from later backups. I would run a backup, turn it off, then do the restore. If you have a spare HFS drive that is large enough for the backup, you could copy the full backup so you have it in case newer backups are lost in the restore process.

 

[zeppo2]

and wouldn't you know it? One of the problems that keeps cropping up from time to time happened while checking your reply. Safari gets stuck from time to time, where the "Quit Safari" menu item is greyed out and inaccessible. Yet Chrome works fine when this occurs . Clearing Safari cache does nothing. Malwarebytes found no issues. But this behavior is what makes me want to go back to clean install one way or another.