Restoring Mac HD to previous date without losing user data

I installed about 3 applications in the past 2 weeks and have noticed my computer is definitely slower than it was... rendering web pages and simple things just aren't as snappy anymore.
On the Support site there lots of articles explaining how to completely restore my system disk and other tell me how to retrieve an old version of files/folders... but how do I restore my system disk with out losing my mail, ical, addres book, itunes lib, skype data, stickies and all other data I have changed and want to keep since the install?
Please help. If restoring the entire HD and then restoring individual files/folders I want back from todays date in Time Machine then so be it.
If there is an easier way then please let me know.
Thanks

you can do it but it has to be done in two steps. first, make a TM backup. to speed things up just choose 'backup now" from the TM menu. next, do a full system restore by booting from the leopard install dvd. once the system is restored log out of your current account and log into another admin account. create one using system preferences->accounts. then go to the folder /users at the top level of the drive and restore the home directory of your main user from the most recent TM backup available. then log into your main account and all your recent data will be there.

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Media should exist in iTunes on the computer.
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Hey thanks a bunch for that, I've seen that a lot--my problem is that I don't see have a partition tab under disk utilities. what gives??
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So over the past few days out of nowhere my macbook pro has started behaving very erratically, i have yet had time to properly set up time machine on an alternate device and i was wondering if it was possible to restore my system to a few days ago? i have tried uninstalling and reinstalling the most problematic programs but they still crash on open. My largest issue has been firefox which deleted all of my bookmarks and would not show a url in the navigation bar. as well as neither my trackpad or usb mouse would allow me to left-click until after i had restarted my laptop 3 times. Anyone have any ideas?

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My largest issue has been firefox which deleted all of my bookmarks and would not show a url in the navigation bar.
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If you've installed crapware like MacKeeper you need to uninstall it here
http://applehelpwriter.com/2011/09/21/how-to-uninstall-mackeeper-malware/
If you've installed a always on anti-virus you need to uninstall it using the devlepers uninstaller
as well as neither my trackpad or usb mouse would allow me to left-click until after i had restarted my laptop 3 times.
Stick in your 10.6 install disk and reboot holding the c key down, boot off the disk and simply reinstall 10.6
reboot holding the Shift key down, then Apple menu > Software update to 10.6.8
reboot and try running all your third party software, a few may not work and have to be reinstalled as they insert kext files into OS X which you just replaced.
check the status of your plugins like Flash and Silverlight here, update if needed
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/plugincheck/
Now go to System Preferences and create another new user and log into it, does things seem fine?
Now log into your original user, does it seem fine?
Now install Firefox by itself, does it seem fine?
Add add-ons one at a time in FF, does everything seem fine?
Try FF in the new user, everything seem fine?
It should be, you've just replaced your OS X, bundled programs and replaced Firefox.
If something still is occuring but only in that first user then you need to transfer personal files to the new user and delete the old one it's corrupted. You can re-create the first user again and transfer files back so things work again (itunes playlists etc.)
Next time make a TimeMachine drive or a Carbon Copy Cloner which is bootable and updates on your scheduale.

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Now, the Mac hard drive doesn't completely start up, it freezes after I enter my log in information.
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Message was edited by: khiner
Message was edited by: khiner

you could use [Winclone|http://twocanoes.com/winclone> to clone the winsloth partition to an external, then erase your internal drive, reinstall OS X, have bootcamp assistant create a new partition for winsloth, and finally clone your winsloth installation back.
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This morning when I opened my laptop and checked my email, Apple Mail decided to flag every single email in my three separate Apple-related accounts ([email protected],[email protected], and [email protected])—some 14,500+ emails total. None of the emails in my comcast or yahoo accounts were affected. Of course, each of the three accounts is set to download copies to my laptop as well as keep them on the server, so now all of those emails are flagged across the board—on my iMac, my iPhone, my iPad mini as well as my laptop. Yay. Since some of the emails were actually flagged intentionally by me over time, I don't want to just unflag everything or I'll lose my flags as well as the ones spontaneously generated this morning.
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I set up an admin account for myself, logged on to it, and then followed the procedure in the help file to delete his account, saving it as a .dmg file. Then, when he asked for his old emails, I followed the procedure in the help file to restore a deleted user account and copied the contents of the .dmg into it.
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Another source of trouble may be the email account settings: when I opened Mail under his log-on, there were no accounts set up: I recreated them using his email address and password, but Mail may well be treating these as new accounts, rather than re-opened old accounts.
Thanks, John

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I do a lot of work on the web and I have a ton of bookmarks that I use to maintain various sites. I have lost them all!
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I have used Firefox for many years and never had a problem before.
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This can be a problem with the file places.sqlite that stores the bookmarks and the history.
* http://kb.mozillazine.org/Bookmarks_history_and_toolbar_buttons_not_working_-_Firefox

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On the MacBook launch iTunes.
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Restoring Mac HD to previous date without losing user data

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