Using Time Machine backup as an external HDD

[Halvarddd]

Hi guys!

My 2013 MacBook Pro is going a little slow, and I would wanna make a full factory reset of it. However I want to keep all my files backed up. If I just drag and drop the files I wanna keep I'm afraid I'm gonna forget something and end up deleting things I want/need.
Is it possible to do a FULL backup with Time Machine, restore my mac, and then connect the external HDD with the backup and just drag single files/folders to my "new" mac?

Hope you understand what I mean. Thanks!

 

[fisherking]

if you do a full backup of your mac, and restore from that backup... everything will be there. why would you also backup specific files from the same mac? they're already in the time machine backup.

not understanding what you mean, actually...

 

[MisterSavage]

Time machine would already be backing up all of your files. You pretty much just tell it what you *don't* want backed up. When my upgrade to Mojave failed spectacularly the Apple genius completely wiped my hard drive. When I got home I told the iMac I wanted to restore from a Time Machine backup on my external drive and then the only thing I had to do after that was patiently wait for several hours.

 

[26139]

You'll want to use Carbon Copy Cloner to do this. It makes a perfect bootable mirror of your existing drive, then you can either restore from it or drag and drop whatever you'd like.

Time Machine copies all the files, but doesn't create a bootable mirror of the drive.

 

[Weaselboy]

Is it possible to do a FULL backup with Time Machine, restore my mac, and then connect the external HDD with the backup and just drag single files/folders to my "new" mac?

Yes you can do that. Once you wipe and reinstall the OS, you can just attach the TM drive and drag and drop back what you want. Any apps that use an installer, won't work like this though, you will need to run the installer again.

 

[Fishrrman]

One more vote for either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper.
Both are FREE to download and use for 30 days, so using them costs you nothing for this job.

 

[StevePaselli]

Yes you can do that. Once you wipe and reinstall the OS, you can just attach the TM drive and drag and drop back what you want. Any apps that use an installer, won't work like this though, you will need to run the installer again.

No. Use Migration Assistant or restore during macOS install

 

[bernuli]

Hi guys!

My 2013 MacBook Pro is going a little slow, and I would wanna make a full factory reset of it. However I want to keep all my files backed up. If I just drag and drop the files I wanna keep I'm afraid I'm gonna forget something and end up deleting things I want/need.
Is it possible to do a FULL backup with Time Machine, restore my mac, and then connect the external HDD with the backup and just drag single files/folders to my "new" mac?

Hope you understand what I mean. Thanks!

I did something similar recently with Catalina 10.15.3. Full backup to Time Machine, erase internal drive, reinstall 10.15.3, reinstall Apps, then copied Documents and Desktop folder from Time Machine backup.

However I discovered a month later that either I forgot some files, or possibly due to Finder bugs, I was without some of the files.

My suggestion is do the full backup with Time Machine, also a full backup with Carbon Copy Cloner.

After you do a clean install, and copy back your files from the Time Machine or CCC backup, keep that backup drive offline, but grab it if you find something missing.

 

[Weaselboy]

No. Use Migration Assistant or restore during macOS install

It sounded like OP wanted to start fresh and drag selective things over manually. Using Migration Assistant would defeat the purpose of a fresh install and import any cruft and problems right back into the clean install.

 

[StevePaselli]

It sounded like OP wanted to start fresh and drag selective things over manually. Using Migration Assistant would defeat the purpose of a fresh install and import any cruft and problems right back into the clean install.

Mmm. If the OP has problems at the user level, when he will copy back Library/Application Support and all other needed elements he will bring the problems as well. And i assume he needs that Library contents... mail accounts, preferences... i did it by hand a few times and it’s long, tedious and prone to errors, and usually it does not solve anything except if the problems were caused by a corrupt Apple file, which is very rare.

 

[Weaselboy]

OP was talking about dragging back in only "files he wanted to keep" and that sounds like just data files like documents, music, and photos. None of that would bring in any cruft from an old install.