What is the best order to upgrade to Lion after putting in a brand new hard drive in my MacBook Pro? Restore first? or install Lion First?

I  have a 2008 macbook pro with brand new 500GB hard drive and 6GB new RAM.    My old hard drive is backed up on external drive, via time machine. When the shop put in the new hard drive (there was nothing wrong with old one, it was just stuffed to the brim), they loaded snow leopard from a disk, but I haven't put anything from the old drive back on yet....I haven't even configured my mail and am just reading mail  from ipad and phone these days.
Question: Should I install Lion before I restore all the old backed-up stuff, or is it important to have anything, ( like maybe preferences)  already on the computer when I download Lion.  I want to be selective when restoring from time machine, because my old hard drive had a lot of ancient software and junk on it that had migrated from every computer we've ever owned, and that is many, many.
So, I'm just stuck on the best way to proceed.  Also, should I install the latest update for 10.6.8 before I download Lion? I see today that some new updates have become available; java, security, safari, and apple software installer.
Thanks
G.T.

Gaye Thomas wrote:
But I just read your next post, and  it sounds like you think I should do the back-up first, or am I missing something. I think you are now recommending that:
1. First I should install Snow Leopard,
2. do the combo update of 10.6.8
3. THEN USE BACKUP to restore what I want to carry over to new drive.
4. Then upgrade to Lion.
I would restore SL and do the Combo 10.6.8 update. Then use your backup to load back in what you want. Then do the upgrade to Lion.
So what made you change your mind?
And, just to say again, the hard drive is completely new.  The shop installed 10.6.8 from the installation CD, and I haven't even configured email.  I'm only using safari.  I just now downloaded 4 updates that software updater recommended.  It now tells me it is up to date.  Is there any reason to do a 10.6.8 combo updater?
Are you recommending to do the back up BEFORE I install Lion, so that there are some preferences and information about old passwords and certain information that Lion will want to know about?  Will it make my life easier to back up BEFORE I install Lion?
What changed my mind was your second post. You don't want to carry over everything to the new drive and the install of Lion. You only want selective things and of course your personal files.
For that I "feel" it best to install SL, Update SL to the most current version, Then selectively restore the parts you want and then install Lion on top of that newest install of SL with the selectively restored parts on the new Hard drive.
That should give you as clean an upgrade as you can get.
Of course you could go a completely different route. Make the Lion install USB, Save all your program Install files you want to be installed in Lion along with your personal files. Then Wipe the drive and install Lion clean. Then RE-Install your programs and copy over your personal files.
That is what I would do as I do not like upgrading to a new OS over the top of an older one. I have never found that to be as clean and it always seems to carry over stuff from the older OS to the new one. But that is me.

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