New Hard Drive- Should I use Time Machine for "fresh" install?

I have a first generation Early 2008 MacbookPro. Warranty just ended and I want to replace the hard drive w/ the Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid. I'm getting a bunch of spin wheel action and things are just running slowly/sluggish. I'm questioning whether or not I should just do a real "fresh" install and load my applications onto the new drive or use TimeMachine. If I use TM am I not adding all the stuff/files that are not needed? Am I adding bloat that I've collected over the past couple of years? Is it better to start w/ a new clean operating system? I do have CS5 and some photo programs that I think I can reinstall. Anyway I wanted to get people's perspective.
Message was edited by: mikked

It's usually best to clean your system up, and deal with any problems before doing major surgery.
With any other scenario, if something goes wrong, how will you know what it was, much less how to fix it?
I'd start with this: [Intel-based Macs: Using Apple Hardware Test|http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509].
Then Verify your internal HD, and repair your Time Machine drive, per #A5 in [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
Then run a +*Repair Permissions+* on your internal HD, via Disk Utility.
Then replace the drive, do a full system restore and run for a while to be sure the new drive and everything else is ok. See #14 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum), for details.
Then start deleting the apps and files you don't need.
Note that, unlike Windoze, leftover files and apps may take up a bit of space, but don't cause any performace problems, unless they're actually running.
The main problems with trying to transfer things selectively are:
Permissions. If you install OSX and set up a user account, that account, even if it has the same name, may not have permission to restore the files on your backups or other drives.
Applications. Simple apps can be transferred individually, such as by restoring from Time Machine. Complex ones usually can't, as their installers put other files in other places. If you don't know what and where they all are, and restore them, too, the app won't work properly, if at all. But if you have all the original discs (and serial numbers/purchase keys), you can just reinstall them.

Similar Messages

Restoring computer with new hard drive & Logic Board using Time Machine

My MBPro totally crashed and just got it back from Apple with a new hard drive, logic board, optical super drive, one new 1GB ram chip, and a new video display panel. My questions are two fold, first, have I had so much replaced on this machine that I need to use Migration Assistant instead of Time Machine to restore it?
Second, If I am suppose to be using Time Machine, I'm having no success! My TM backups were done on a network drive via Airport Extreme with a HD attached to it. Through the Snow Leopard disk utility, I can access the partition with the backup on it, but then it hangs on "opening TM backup". After about a half hour, I had to do a hard shut down (no other option). I did this several times, same result. So the question is;
Can I plug the HD directly into my MBPro and restore it that way? I'm not sure if I can do this as I know the backups are different for hard wired and networked drives.
Or can I use an ethernet cable and plug Airport Extreme with the external drive attached into my laptop?
Thanks for any help!

Arlee wrote:
My MBPro totally crashed and just got it back from Apple with a new hard drive, logic board, optical super drive, one new 1GB ram chip, and a new video display panel. My questions are two fold, first, have I had so much replaced on this machine that I need to use Migration Assistant instead of Time Machine to restore it?
no. you can do a full system restore from TM using the restore utility on the snow leopard DVD.
Second, If I am suppose to be using Time Machine, I'm having no success! My TM backups were done on a network drive via Airport Extreme with a HD attached to it. Through the Snow Leopard disk utility,
snow leopard disk utility?? what exactly are you doing? disk utility is not involved in restoring from TM in any way.
I can access the partition with the backup on it, but then it hangs on "opening TM backup". After about a half hour, I had to do a hard shut down (no other option). I did this several times, same result. So the question is;
Can I plug the HD directly into my MBPro and restore it that way? I'm not sure if I can do this as I know the backups are different for hard wired and networked drives.
no, this is not how you should do it. connect the AEBS by ethernet. then boot from the snow leopard dvd and use "restore system from backup" from the Utilities menu. it will let you find the backup on the network and do a full system restore from it.
Or can I use an ethernet cable and plug Airport Extreme with the external drive attached into my laptop?
Thanks for any help!

I have new hard drive, should I use migration assistant before I install Snow Leopard or install Snow Leopard first?

I just had a new hard drive installed after a hard drive failure. I need to install Snow Leopard, Lion and VMware Fusion. Should I use migration assistant to reinstall my old files and applications first or should I install the new Operating Systems first? Some of the old files do have corrupt data and I will have to pick and choose what back-up files I re-install.

Pondini wrote:
memalyn wrote:
Some files were backed up on another external drive but not all.
How was that done? Drag & drop? An app like CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper?
Initially files were backed up on the iMac with Time Machine. I purchased a My Book external hard drive and after doing a full back up on it, I began doing all of my incremental back ups on it using Time Machine. Sometime later, I purchased a Western Digital external hard drive that included back up software on it called "WD Back-up" so I could use it to store all of my Music and Audiobooks on to keep my iMac and My Book free of those file types. The WD Backup software allowed me to pick and choose what files I wanted to back-up. I don't think I had been backing up Music and Audiobooks on the Mac anyway or maybe I was, I don't remember if I can selectively pick and choose files with Time Machine - I have not checked as I have not yet plugged it into my new hard drive. Once The My Book drive became full with regular back ups, around June or so I had to switch over to the WD Back up drive. I recall that I was very concerned that I could not do a full back up on the WD drive because if I did, I would have to reformat the drive and I did not want to do that, so I think I was able to selectively back up some additional files from my iMac but again, I do not know for sure since I have not looked at what is on the drive. I do know that if I was able to back up additional files I had to do it with WD Back up and not Time Machine, if that matters.
I know that the files in the partitioned drive and files associated with VMware Fusion are damaged. If I do a full restore, it will restore the VMware Fusion app and partioned drive
We need some clarification:
Do you mean there were 2 partitions on your internal HD? If so, how was the second one formatted? Was it backed-up?
No, there was only one partitioned drive. The way I understand it is the VMware Fusion software does the partitioning and the app resides on the Mac. After that was done, I then installed the Windows software on the partitioned drive. There is a critical file on the Mac under a Folder called Virtual Machines and in the Virtual Machines folder, the "Windows Bundle" or some such thing keeps locking each time the software crashes due to the problem files somewhere within the files in the VMware Fusion software that (I think resides) in the Windows environment that I cannot access. The Virtual Machine file on the Mac gets backed up so the Windows Bundles files get backed up and that includes all the screen shots (essentially backups) of the Windows environment. The Windows environment includes some of the apps and their data in Windows such as Quicken. Theoretically, the partitioned drive does not get backed up but in reality if the screen shots do, some of the partitioned drive does - corrupt or not. If you have a Quicken file open and a drop down screen in Quicken frozen when the system crashes, that is what gets backed up and there is no way you can get back into Windows or Quicken.
               If I do a full restore, it will restore the VMware Fusion app
If you restore an OSX volume, yes, that will restore all apps, but that's not necessarily bad. If necessary or desired, you can always delete or reinstall a suspect app. That way, all your other apps will be ok. For most users, reinstalling all apps is a considerable project. See Transferring Applications for an explanation.
Well, that is true. To reinstall VMware Fusion, Windows and Quicken would much, much easier than all of the Mac software I have. Plus, the VMware Fusion version I have is not compatible with Lion and my goal is to install Lion, so I will have to upgrade VMware Fusion no matter what. Further, I'm so aggravated with the dual operating system, I've been looking at products to replace Quicken, so if anyone knows of a good home, small business and home rental financial product they can recommend, I'm all ears!
               If I do a full restore, it will restore . . . and partioned drive
If there are 2 partitons, a full restore only restores the OSX partition. If a non-OSX partition was backed-up, it must be restored separately.
               Now that I've said I only have 1 partitioned drive, does that mean it will restore the partitioned drive? I would prefer it did not. It seems now that it would be much cleaner to restore the OSX drive. Would I be able to do that?
So, depending on the exact circumstances, your best be may be to restore the most recent OSX partition, then restore/copy those files that were backed-up on another drive; reinstall VMware if necessary; restore the other partition.
So . . . things may be a bit more complex than we though, but perhaps less dire.
More detail on the various partitions and backups should clarify things.

Can I restore a new hard drive from a previous time machine back-up?

Hi there,
My MacBook Pro 13 inch is 4 years old.
The computer began to freeze/stop working, so I took it to an Apple care centre and they informed that my hard drive has crashed and has to be replaced.
Luckily, I backed up my old hard drive a few days before with an external hard drive using Time Machine. My question is: can I restore this new hard drive with my old time machine backup that is on my external hard drive? If so, how do I do this?
Thanks

Of course! If you couldn't, Time Machine would be rather worthless, now wouldn't it?
For instructions, see:
How do I restore my entire system?

Can I view photos and movies from my external hard drive? I used Time Machine and a WD Passport for backup. Since my drive on my MacBook Pro is filling up I was planning to delete some of the movies and photos.

Can I view photos and movies from my external hard drive? I used Time Machine and a WD Passport for backup. Since my drive on my MacBook Pro is filling up I was planning to delete some of the movies and photos. I wanted to see if I could view them from the hard drive. Thanks

Hello, eco1.
Thank you for visiting Apple Support Communities.
This sounds like you are wanting to move your iTunes media folder to an external drive and have iTunes this folder from this location. If this is the case then I would recommend taking a look at the article below.
iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449
Cheers,
Jason H.

How do I find my photos on my external hard drive backed up using Time Machine?

How do I find my photos on my external hard drive backed up using Time Machine?
My hard drive died so this is my only storage. The hard drive was from an early 2008 Macbook Pro.
I had recently installed Snow Leopard.

If they’re in an iPhoto library, look in the Pictures folder of your home folder first. Otherwise, they’ll be in the location corresponding to the one you saved them to.
(111765)

Can I back-up files to a portable hard drive and not use Time Machine?

I have a portable hard drive that I use for all of my Time Machine back-ups. I back-up the entire system every two or three weeks. I use the Time Machine software and it works quite well. I'm interested in backing up specific files (photos, documents, etc.) to a second portable drive every six months but I don't want to use the Time Machine software. Is there a simple way to hook up the portable drive (brand new Lacie 500 gb drive), open up the file on my desktop and drag the files to the new drive? Are there special steps I need to perform to avoid formatting the drive for Time Machine? Any tips will be greatly appreciated.

MacConvert54 wrote:
Is there a simple way to hook up the portable drive (brand new Lacie 500 gb drive), open up the file on my desktop and drag the files to the new drive?
You can do that, but you'll have to erase the drive, or delete the previous versions, each time. You might want to look at CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper. They're most often used to make full bootable "clones" of your internal HD, but can be set to back up specific files and folders as well. CCC is donationware, so you can try it for a while before sending them some $$ so they can keep it up to date. SD has a free version, but I think you'll need the paid one (about $30, I think) to do this.
Are there special steps I need to perform to avoid formatting the drive for Time Machine?
It would be best to format it for Macs, which is the same as Time Machine. What is the problem with that?

Should I use Time Machine?

I have a new Western Digital My Passport Essential 320GB external hard drive. I also have an old PowerPC iBook G3, with a 40GB hard drive and a dead logic board. I can still access the iBook's HD by hooking it up to my current MacBook and starting it up in Target Disk mode. My current MacBook has a 120GB hard drive, which is getting full.
This is the first time I've ever used external storage. What I would like to do is:
a) copy the contents of the iBook's HD to the external HD;
b) back up the contents of the MacBook's HD;
c) free up some space on the MacBook's HD.
My questions:
1. Do I need to format the external drive before doing anything? If so, am I right in thinking that I should do this in Disk Utility > Erase, and choose 'Mac OS X Extended (Journaled)'?
2. If I do this, do I need to worry about the files that were already on the drive when it arrived from the manufacturer? (I might keep the User Guide pdf, but everything else seems to be .exe files, or files for which there is no default application specified to open them.)
3. Do I need to create a partition on the external HD for the contents of the old iBook HD?
4. Will Time Machine work on a partitioned external HD?
5. Should I use Time Machine to back up the contents of my MacBook, or do it manually? The things that I'm most concerned to back up are my photographs. However, these are also the files which take up the most room on my MacBook HD (I shoot in RAW - lots of 10MB+ files), so are the obvious candidates for files to keep on the external HD in order to free up space on the MacBook. If I back up using TM, then erase some photos from the MacBook hard drive, will TM then erase them from the external hard drive as well - either immediately or when the external hard drive fills up - or will they be safe forever? Sorry, I'm not entirely clear how TM actually works...
I'm a real novice here. Advice on any or all of the above will be much appreciated.
Michael

GoonInChief wrote:
My questions:
1. Do I need to format the external drive before doing anything? If so, am I right in thinking that I should do this in Disk Utility > Erase, and choose 'Mac OS X Extended (Journaled)'?
If it's not HFS+, it needs to be formatted to HFS+ (Mac OS Extended - Journaled) via Disk Utility. All data will be lost. See Answer 4.
2. If I do this, do I need to worry about the files that were already on the drive when it arrived from the manufacturer? (I might keep the User Guide pdf, but everything else seems to be .exe files, or files for which there is no default application specified to open them.)
If you want to keep the files, copy it to another location.
3. Do I need to create a partition on the external HD for the contents of the old iBook HD?
If you want to.
4. Will Time Machine work on a partitioned external HD?
Yes, but it needs to be formatted HFS+. If you are creating a separate partition, you use a GUID partition map for an Intel iMac (APM for PPC).
5. Should I use Time Machine to back up the contents of my MacBook, or do it manually? The things that I'm most concerned to back up are my photographs. However, these are also the files which take up the most room on my MacBook HD (I shoot in RAW - lots of 10MB+ files), so are the obvious candidates for files to keep on the external HD in order to free up space on the MacBook. If I back up using TM, then erase some photos from the MacBook hard drive, will TM then erase them from the external hard drive as well - either immediately or when the external hard drive fills up - or will they be safe forever? Sorry, I'm not entirely clear how TM actually works...
Absolutely NOT! TM is not for archiving. You delete files are NOT safe forever.

Which external hard drive should I use to save my iTunes library?

Hi,
So I have collected so much music and movies in iTunes that my internal HD is practically full. (Library is over 500GB of 1TB and the rest is taken up with my apps and programs.) It's time to purchase an external hard drive to transfer my library to. Furthermore, I currently have a 2TB WD My Book for Mac that I am currently using for backup. The My Book is also full and Time Machine is deleting the oldest backups to make room for the current ones.
Here is where I need everyones advice. I am planning on purchasing a 3TB WD My Book for Mac. I am planning on purchasing more movies for iTunes. Which external hard drive should I use for what? Option A or B
Option A: Put my iTunes library on the 2TB external hard drive and use the 3TB for backup
Option B: Put my iTunes library on the 3TB external hard drive and continue to use the 2TB for backup
Also please give me your reasoning.
Thanks everyone for your responses!

Limnos,
So, let's go one step further with this. I read your reply to moving iTunes library to an external hard drive: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4594518?tstart=0 However, if I move the iTunes library, will this include all the movies and apps that I have purchased?
Thanks!!!!

Do I need startup discs to upgrade hardware on MacBook Pro or can I restore the hard drive from from a Time Machine backup?

do I need startup discs to upgrade hardware on MacBook Pro or can I restore the hard drive from from a Time Machine backup?

Ok, well go and grab a small 2.5" hard drive enclosure so you can put the new drive in & temporarily use it like an external hard drive.
Download Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper and make a bootable clone of your current HDD on the new HDD.
Once that's done you can test the clone by booting from it. To do this hold Optioni while booting to select the external (new) drive. If everything looks ok, you can go ahead and swap over the HDD's.
So much easier.

What brand external hard drive is best with time machine

what brand of external hard drive works best with time machine?

Contrary to the other two replies, I will relate what I've read here: WD drives are fine, but their (cheap?) enclosures are subject to failure. Some buy a bare WD drive and install it in an Oxford Chip external enclosure (OWC / macsales.com would be one source). And, I have two LaCie Quadras and one OWC Mercury Pro - both are generally recommended here. If you want it bootable, most WD drives do not support it:
http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1787/related/1/session/L2F2LzEvd GltZS8xMzUxNTIzMzIwL3NpZC9ueUFYc1g5bA%3D%3D
Please note: it's good to have an external hard drive which has its own power supply and, as mentioned, FW 800 or USB 3). You also do not need any software that comes on the external - you will most likely need to format it anyway because most come formatted for Windows, but that is easy using Disk Utility.

Hard Drive Showing up with Time Machine Icon

I have two hard drives in my Mac Pro. I use one as the time machine backup drive. When I set that one up it changed the icon to the Time Machine icon. Today when I logged into my computer my normal drive changed from the regular hard drive icon to the time machine icon. Any ideas?

FYI...
The problem was that before I started using Time Machine, I had used the FW portable drive to back up my laptop using Carbon Copy Cloner (which makes a bootable copy of your HD). I didn't erase the drive before using it as my Time Machine backup disk so both the FW drive and the HD had the same disk ID associated with them so the time machine icon ended up being associated with both of them.
I erased the portable HD completely (yes, I lost my TM backups but that's a reasonable loss) and then reviewed the Startup Disk under System Preferences. Only the boot drive was listed there correctly (before the erasure, both drives showed up there).
I did a complete backup using TM overnight and then rebooted the system this morning....all is well now. The boot disk now has it's correct icon associated with it.
Regards,
Vicki

What external Hard drive should I use for Final Cut Pro?

Hi:
I have a Mac Pro and I'm planning to work with HD. What external hard drive should I use?
PD: I have a NVIDIA on a PCI Express graphic slot.
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Cabezon

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Our iMac (intel, 11.2) freezes up when using Time Machine for Back Ups. We have 16GB of RAM and the BU drive is 1 TB on firewire.

Our iMac (intel, 11.2) freezes up when using Time Machine for Back Ups. We have 16GB of RAM and the BU drive is 1 TB on firewire.

See Pondini's TM FAQs for starters.

Just got a new MacMini. Migrated files using Time Machine. However, now, on Launchpad, I see several Firmware updates that were relevant for the old machine, but not for the new one. How do I get rid of these updates? They won't delete!

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New Hard Drive- Should I use Time Machine for "fresh" install?

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