Clean Install and Restore from Time Machine

Hi All,
Just after some advice, I'm thinking of doing a clean install of OS X when Mavericks comes out. I've been a Mac user for 13 years and have always used Migration Assistant to move my data over whenever I've bought a new Mac. I've never done a clean install before, but I've noticed over the years all the crap that's floating around my hard drive from old Mac's and various files from software I've removed years ago. I'm sure there's tons of rubbish that's accumulated over the 13 years.
Someone suggested clean installing OS X and then using Migration Assistant to load all my data back on from a Time Machine backup, but customise what I want to restore. I was told that if I don't choose to restore System Settings or something similar then it should just restore all my other stuff such as apps, files, itunes and iphoto library, etc. but would leave out all the rubbish. Is that the case?

TJ Skywasher wrote:
Someone suggested clean installing OS X and then using Migration Assistant to load all my data back on from a Time Machine backup, but customise what I want to restore.
Largely agreeing with baltwo, it's probably not worthwhile.
I was told that if I don't choose to restore System Settings or something similar then it should just restore all my other stuff such as apps, files, itunes and iphoto library, etc. but would leave out all the rubbish. Is that the case?
No. If you transfer everything with Setup Assistant when the Mac first starts (preferred), or Migration Assistant later, and leave everything selected, it will transfer everything except OSX (which you just replaced) -- all your apps, user home folders, data, settings, etc. There's rarely a point to that.
With either Assistant, you can omit some broad categories of things, but you can't "pick and choose" individual items even if you knew which ones you wanted. See Using Setup Assistant on Mountain Lion or Lion. Read the first few paragraphs, then scroll down to the Transfer Your Information windows and the pink boxes below them for details. The windows and procedures for Mavericks may be somewhat different, but functionally the same.
If your Mac is just full of junk, be sure it's well backed-up just in case, then delete what you know you don't need.
If it's sluggish, after trying everything else, as a last resort you might want to do a clean install transferring everything except apps, then reinstall the extra and 3rd-party apps you want from the original discs or re-download them. If you have a lot (you probably have more than you think), that can be a daunting task. You''ll also need the serial numbers / purchase keys for them.

Similar Messages

Clean install and restore from Time Machine: Will i lose my applications ?

I want to do a Snow Leopard clean install instead of a an upgrade.
1) How do I do the clean install and restore it from Time machine during the install ?
2) If I do the clean install and restore from Leopard's time machine backup, will I retaing all my applications or I will only retain my personal files ?
- If I don't retain my applications, how will my photos in iPhoto be restored without iPhoto ?

If you did a complete TM backup, then all your files, users, settings, and programs will be restored. You will have the opportunity to restore using TM at the end of the install. I would back at least my data up separately.
To erase and install (i.e., clean install), start up to your DVD and stop after selecting your language. Use the menus to start Disk Utility and erase your drive. Quit Disk Utility and proceed with your installation. At the end, you will be able to choose to reclaim your settings, files, and apps from TM.
Message was edited by: donv (The Ghost)

Did a leopard clean install and restored via time machine

Hi
Just done a leopard clean install and restored data via time machine, now when i run time machine i cant go back in time to restore other bits and bobs, any ideas
thanks

This is not meant to be a snide comment, but I use Carbon Copy Cloner and Super Duper not TM. Used TM for a while but got tired of it, changed to CCC and then when Super Duper was updated for Leopard moved back to SD. I like it because (both SD and CCC) can be scheduled for whenever you want to run it and it only backs up files that have changed since last update. It also produces a bootable disk.

Clean install selective restore from time machine backup

Hi,
My harddisk crashed, and I have just installed a new harddrive.
I have just installed a fresh OS and am wondering if it is possible to selective restore stuff from my time machine backup.
I only want to restore some of my data file.
When I plugin my time machine backup. the preference pane does recognize that i have previous backup. But when I go into time machine state, the older stuff doesn't show up.
how can i get my old files back?
I can't see anything from before I changed my harddisk and did a few reinstall of the OS.

Restoring specific files or folders
While your backup disk is connected, click the Time Machine icon in the Dock and the Time Machine restore interface appears. You can literally see your windows as they appeared "back in time." Note: If you use FileVault, you cannot browse for individual items in your Home folder. However, you can restore all files and folders by using the Restore System from Backup feature of the Mac OS X Installer.
You can use the timeline on the right side of the window to reach a certain point back in time (the timeline shows the times of all backups on your backup disk). If you don’t know exactly when you deleted or changed a file, you can use the back arrow to let Time Machine automatically travel through time to show you when that folder last changed.
You can also perform a Spotlight search in the Time Machine Finder Window search field to find a file. Simply type the Spotlight search field and use the back arrow to have Time Machine search through your backups to find what you are looking for.
Before you restore a file, you can also use Quick Look to preview a file to make sure its the one you want. Highlight the file and press the Space Bar to bring up a preview.
To restore, select the file/folder and click the "Restore" button. The file will automatically be copied to the desktop or appropriate folder. If the file you are restoring has another file in the same location with the same name, you will be prompted to choose which file to keep or keep both.
Restoring your entire system from a backup
If you are restoring a backup made by a Mac to the same Mac
With your backup disk connected, start up your Mac from your Mac OS X v10.5 or Mac OS X v10.6 installation disc. After starting up, use the Restore System from Backup feature of the Mac OS X Installer.
Note: If "You can't restore this backup because it was created by a different model of Mac" appears when restoring a backup that was made on a different Mac, follow the onscreen instructions.
If you are restoring a backup made by one Mac to a completely different Mac
Important: If the backup you are about to restore is from a completely different Mac, use the Migration Assistantto transfer data from the backup, as described in the next section.
Restoring a Time Machine backup on a new Mac
When you buy a new Mac, you can transfer all of your applications, files, settings, and other information from a Time Machine backup you've already made.
You will be asked if you want to transfer files when you start up your new Mac for the first time. Or, you can use the Migration Assistant (located in Applications/Utilities).
If you use a Time Capsule, see Restoring files from a Time Capsule backup.
Deleting data from a Time Machine backup
To delete all backups of one or more items from a Time Machine backup, follow these steps:
Click the Time Machine icon on your Dock to enter the Time Machine restore interface.
Click on the item you would like to delete. Command-click to select multiple items.
Control-click (or right click) the highlighted item(s) and select "Delete All Backups of..." from the contextual menu, or select "Delete all backups of..." from the Action Item menu.
Authenticate with an administrator password when prompted.
Important: Do not use the Finder to move to the items to the Trash, or to move or delete items in your Time Machine backup repository. The folder containing your Time Machine backup repository is called "Backups.backupd" and is located on the external disk or Time Capsule you have chosen in Time Machine preferences.

I have a late 2006 iMac that has just started giving me a message to reboot after a black screen comes down slowly from the top top of the screen to the bottom. I reloaded software and restored from Time Machine, it now happens frequently. Any insight?

I have a late 2006 iMac that has just started giving me a message to reboot after a black screen comes down slowly from the top top of the screen to the bottom. I reloaded software and restored from Time Machine, but it keeps happening, now several tomes a day. Any insight as to the issue or a proposed solution?

Unplug any peripherals you have except your keyboard, reboot, and check activity monitor for apps. Keep running apps to a minimum to find the App causing the issue.

I want to erase from Leopard and restore from Time Machine, help!

I'm about to reinstall Leopard and I want to zero all of my internal hard drives and start fresh. (im trying to get to the bottom of a kernel problem).
Anyways last night I did a Time Machine backup to a new 2TB WD HD. Everything appears to be backed up fine, but I want to make sure I can restore from Time Machine before I go and do this.
Please let me know if there are any precautions I should take into consideration or if there is a good way to go about doing this.
Thanks!

You could try restoring your backup to a new drive before you over-write your working system. That will allow you to test your backup and skills before risking too much down time.
Add a drive large enough to restore the backup to and boot from the Leopard DVD. After you choose your language you can get to the Utility menu to restore Leopard from a TM drive.
Here's a pretty good "walk thru" on the entire process:
http://duncandavidson.com/blog/restoringfrom_timemachine/

HT201250 My MacBook is slow. I have a cleanup programme and I do not have many applications. I would like to clean the disk and restore from Time Machine. Will it still be slow?

I am frustrated having paid for "Clean My Mac" which I run regularly and using tips like cleaning the cache in Terminal view. It is still getting slower. Can I clean off the disk and reinstall from my Time Machine, or will it re load the problem too? How do I do this anyway?

See:
How to eliminate slow Mac problems,
Mac Maintenance Quick Assist,
Mac OS X speed FAQ,
Speeding up Macs,
How to Speed up Macs,
Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance,
Mac troubleshooting: What to do when your computer is too slow,
Essential Mac Maintenance: Get set up,
Essential Mac Maintenance: Rev up your routines,
Maintaining OS X,
Five Mac maintenance myths and
Myths of required versus not required maintenance for Mac OS X for information.
iMac refurb (27-inch Mid 2011), OS X Mavericks (10.9.4), SL & ML, G4 450 MP w/Leopard, 9.2.2

Logic Pro, Apple Loops, and Restoring from Time Machine

I recently had to restore my Mac from a Time Machine backup, and like most things touched by Apple, the restoration worked flawlessly for all my stuff, with a few exceptions. Some 3rd party apps I use had problems with file permissions but most of it was quickly sorted out in under half an hour.
However, Logic Pro refuses to see the Apple Loops I have installed on my system. My Loops are stored in two folders at the following locations:
/Library/Audio/Apple Loops/Apple/Apple Loops for Soundtrack/
/Library/Audio/Apple Loops/Apple/Apple Loops for Soundtrack Pro/
GarageBand has no problem seeing these, but Logic Pro can't find them, and won't let me show it where they are. The Apple Loop Utility found them alright, although I did have to show it where the files were kept. Any idea what's wrong?

You may need to rebuild the loops index.
Open up Logic and display the Loops Browser
Open up FInder and locate the folder containing the loops as you describe
Drag the loops folders onto the Loops Browser
That will rebuild the index and all should be well.
Pete

IMac won't boot after replacing hard drive and restoring from Time Machine

I was having problems with my iMac but upgraded to Lion when it came out. Had a few good days and then my hard drive died.
I had the drive replaced and the repair people put Snow Leopard on the new drive.
I then tried to restore everything from my Time Machine backup. At first when I tried to log on the computer wouldn't accept my password (i know it was right).
I decided to reinstall again using the snow leopard dvd i had. This time, the computer booted up (didn't ask me for a passord) and looked like it was in the process of setting things up. But Mail kept saying it was going to import messages but then quit and restarted a few seconds later. When i quit it it just came back again and again. I could see Chrome open behind it with my bookmarks in the toolbar and see other restored things, but the overall look was grey and not everything was there.
When i restarted from the HD and not the dvd i could never get past various shades of grey and the circling progress indicator. Never booted up at all.
I read about Lion having some restore hd functionality but it doesn't show up when i restart with option key. Am I in limbo between operating systems?
Any advice as to steps to take? I don't know much about this stuff.
Thanks for any help.

Yes, if you picked a Snow Leopard backup, that's what you got.
You could pick a Lion backup, and it would restore it, but that wouldn't create the Recovery HD, which you will need, sooner or later. See Using the Recovery HD. You'll need to re-download Lion for that to be created.
When you do that, after downloading but before installing Lion again, you might want to do this: Making a Lion Install disc or partition. Then if you need to reinstall Lion again, you can do it from that, instead of having to download it again.

Iphoto 11 on MT Lion can not find my iphoto library after a a hard drive replacement and restore from time machine...HELP

I have an iMac with the recalled seagate drives and I have everything backed up on Timecapsule and on Carbonite. I also copied all my photos to a file prior to having the hard drive replaced. The merge back to the mac worked well except that now iphot can't locate my library. In iphoto 11 they moved it out of the pictures file and it is hidden. Does anyone know how to find it so I don't have to reorganize 20,000 pictures?
Thank you!

In iphoto 11 they moved it out of the pictures file and it is hidden.
They didn't, I'm afraid. The iPhoto Library is still stored in the Pictures Folder by default, and it's not hidden.
Can you see it in Time Machine?

How to create another partition on mac and restore from time machine

I want to create another partition on my macbook running on OS X Yosemite. I want to recover a time machine back up on this partition. Basically this is a backup of my other old PC which I saved on a time machine external hard disk and now I want to create it as a new separate partition which I can log into to as opposed to continuous to connected to it via USB.
Any advise on how I can do that?

Hi Patrick,
Thanks for the that great tip.
In that time machine back up I have some applications for e.g. MS office etc and I wanted it to be like a virtual machine as such that I launch when I want to use the applications, see my data etc....I have bought parallels as that allows you to have multiple virtual machines on your laptop whether these are multiple mac images as time machine backups or linux, Microsoft Windows 7, 8 etc....
Thats what I eventually want to do here...
This feature that you provided is also of good reference for me in future.

Restore from time machine questions

Since update from snow leopard to time machine mac mini runs very slow. Too much beach ball. I want to do a clean install of lion and restore from time machine and have multiple questions.
1. I'm not sure if my time capsule password is the same as my airport, and if it is not where can I find it
2. If I install the os can I just tell the time machine that I am migrating to a new machine and that would be the most simple and painless? And if I did would that just restore broken extensions?
3. Will my keychain be restored?
4.What do I restore? Documents? All my files? Macintosh HD? Applications? Documents?
5. I'm using parallels primarily to run the windows version of Quicken. Will time machine restore that or do need to reinstall parallels and windows etc?
6. If I restore Applications folder will programs work or do I need to reinstall the programs?
7. Do I install Ilife or Iwork? Mobile me? Widgets? Printers, keyboard, etc?

Since update from snow leopard to time machine mac mini runs very slow. Too much beach ball. I want to do a clean install of lion and restore from time machine and have multiple questions.
1. I'm not sure if my time capsule password is the same as my airport, and if it is not where can I find it
2. If I install the os can I just tell the time machine that I am migrating to a new machine and that would be the most simple and painless? And if I did would that just restore broken extensions?
3. Will my keychain be restored?
4.What do I restore? Documents? All my files? Macintosh HD? Applications? Documents?
5. I'm using parallels primarily to run the windows version of Quicken. Will time machine restore that or do need to reinstall parallels and windows etc?
6. If I restore Applications folder will programs work or do I need to reinstall the programs?
7. Do I install Ilife or Iwork? Mobile me? Widgets? Printers, keyboard, etc?

Lost mail rules when upgrading to ML, can't restore from time machine

Hi,
I've installed mountain lion and restored from time machine and mail rules were not there. There's only news from apple.
I tried to restore the rules myself (MessageRules.plist and MessageRules.plist.backup) but when opening mail rules were not there yet. Nevertheless, i can add rules manually, so if there was a way of looking at the past rules I could just copy them (though it's not the best way).

My rules are still there, so perhaps Apple support speak with resource forked tongue.
Comparing an old (pre ML) rules file from 20th June with the ML one, the differences are:
The file name was: MessageRules.plist, the ML one is SynchedRules.plist. Both are in my V2 folder, but the old Rules have been copied (by Mail, not me) into the new SynchedRules file.
In the old file, for each item (Rule) the first line was Active (Key) String (Type) 1 (Value). In the ML file, this line is no longer there, so the first line is AllCriteriaMustBeSatisfied.
You can see these differnces in the "preview" part of Finder Show Info, if you have the two files to compare.
Thus, just copying and renaming the old Rules file probably won't work, because of this difference. Mail probably just makes a new file because the copied file isn't as expected. It should be possible to edit the old plist file to remove the "Active" line, and rename it to SynchedRules.plist (but see below). The top is slightly different, just below <dict>, as this relates to the Active line. There are a couple of lines at the bottom that aren't in the new file.
The "Active" line that has gone is now in a file called RulesActiveState.plist. This file is just a list of RuleIds from the SynchedRules.plist (like this:
AC6F6611-FF61-4AA6-9682-BA100EFAC233)
Doing this does sound rather tedious, but might be quicker than manually re-entering blocked email addresses etc. to replicate old rules. As plist files are in xml format, it should be possible to use a text editor to delete the unwanted "Active" line from the message rules list by Find & Replace All (with nothing). All this could then be copied to the "SynchedRules.plist. You would need to copy the RuleIds into the RulesActiveState.plist as well.
Make a copy of the files first just in case...

So if my restore from time machine is my comp like new again?

so my computer is running very slow, if i erase and re-install the os from the cd and restore from time machine wont my computer run like new again? do i even need to re-install the os from the cd?

If you restore your entire system, it will be as slow as it was the day of the backup.
You should try to find out what's slowing your computer instead of re-installing. You will just probably re-install the source of your problem as well and wasting your time.

After clean install of Snow Leopard, Time Machine did not restore all files. When I try to restore these files I get "Not enough disk space" error. What do I need to do to get these important files back onto my Mac from my external hard drive??

After clean install of Snow Leopard, Time Machine did not restore all files. When I try to restore these files I get "Not enough disk space" error. What do I need to do to get these important files back onto my Mac from my external hard drive??

Janet.b wrote:
About 3 years old...pretty dated now I guess. Am thinking I may just need to have it upgraded by a Mac tech.
For what the Apple Store's charge you can buy almost buy a new computer.
Just for giggles I brought my old laptop in for a drive upgrade and asked, they wanted $600 for a drive that only cost $120 at the time and it was a slow 5,400 RPM drive. The new Mac's of a similar make were going for $1000.
I did the drive replacement myself, got a faster drive of better quality for $300 instead.
Then another time I asked for a RAM upgrade from 4GB to 8GB, they wanted to charge $400 + $35 for the labor.
The same RAM is on Crucial.com for $90 and all I need is a 00 micro phillips screwdriver.
So you see what's going on here.
I think what you should do, if your out of warranty/AppleCare, is to call up the local PC tech guy who also does Mac's and have them fix you right up.
They can offer more personalized care which you need. Clone your old drive to the new and everything.
With Apple they are overworked at the Genius Bar and just place roadblocks so you buy a new machine instead.
For instance, all new iMac's now have proprietary drive software installed on the hard drives for heat monitoring. So now the only choice a user has is to bring their iMac into a Apple Store for a very expensive drive upgrade, which a person then decides the money is better spent buying a new machine.

Clean Install and Restore from Time Machine

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