Restore 10.6 on an external HD

I have installed Lion on my MBP. Some of the apps that I use don't run, so I want to restore a previous time machine backup onto an exteranal HD. Can this be done?  The external HD is from a previous MBP that I encased.
Any help would be great.
Thanks in advance.

Yes.
http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/14.html
Regards,
Colin R.

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